| Battle of Taftanaz | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofApril 2012 Idlib Governorate Operation (theearly insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Hassan Aboud Abu Ali Bard | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown |
| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 9 tanks[4] | ||||||
| 120 killed in total (opposition claim)[5] | |||||||
  Location within Syria | |||||||
TheBattle of Taftanaz started on February 11, 2012, inIdlib Governorate, between anti-government fighters and Syrian Arab Army troops participating in a nationwide crackdown on dissent againstBashar al-Assad's government. Heavy fighting took place on the outskirts of the town ofTaftanaz, killing 20 people.[6][7] On the day of the battle Kofi Annanannounced a cease-fire for theSyrian conflict.
By 5 April, the military captured Taftanaz's city center, which was defended by 200 armed rebels, after a two-hour battle, following which the army reportedly rounded up and executed 82 people. It was unknown how many were opposition fighters and how many were civilians.[8]
Two months after, it was called a "massacre" in the town of Taftanaz, two-thirds of the population had left. The town had been a centre for opposition protests until the army had raided it with tanks on 3 April. Witnesses in the town said that tanks shelled the town from four sides before armored cars brought in dozens of soldiers who dragged civilians from their homes and gunned them down in the streets, and they also claimed that the soldiers looted, destroyed and torched hundreds of homes, bringing some down on their owners' heads. Videos showed this, and 62 people were killed during the attack, despite the town only having a small rebel presence. Nine Syrian Arab Army tanks were destroyed by homemade bombs as they left the town.[4]
