Early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war
Part of theSyrian revolution and theSyrian civil war
Syrian Arab Army checkpoint in Douma, January 2012
Date 29 July 2011 – 20 April 2012 (8 months, 3 weeks and 1 day) Location Syria,neighbouring countries Result UN-mediatedtruce: General cease of hostilities in late April and early May Cease-fire collapse andconflict escalation by June 2012
Belligerents
Syrian government Ba'ath Party Syrian Army Syrian Air Force Syrian Navy Syrian Police Security Agencies Shabiha	Syrian opposition Free Syrian Army[1] Free Officers Movement Suqour al-Sham Liwa al-Islam Ahrar al-Sham Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement Al-Nusra Front
Commanders and leaders
Bashar al-Assad (President of Syria) Maher al-Assad (4th Division Commander) Dawoud Rajiha (Defense Minister) Fahd Jassem al-Freij (Chief of Staff, Syrian Army) Assef Shawkat (Deputy Defense Minister) Ali Abdullah Ayyoub (Deputy Chief of Staff) Issam Hallaq (Chief of Air Force Staff) Ghassan Ismail (Air Force Intelligence head) Mohammad al-Shaar (Interior Minister) Walid Muallem (Foreign Minister)	Riad al-Asaad (Free Syrian Army commander) Mustafa Al-Sheikh (Higher Military Council head) Jamal Maarouf (Syrian Martyrs' Brigade commander) Hussein Harmoush  (Free Officers Movement commander, until August 2011) Ahmed Issa al-Sheikh (Suqour al-Sham commander) Zahran Alloush (Liwa al-Islam commander) Hassan Aboud (Ahrar al-Sham commander) Sheikh Tawfiq Shahabuddin (Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement commander) Abu Mohammad al-Julani (Al-Nusra Front commander)
Strength
Syrian Army: ~60,000[a] Security agencies and affiliated paramilitaries: ~200,000[3] Ba'ath Party militias: tens of thousands[4] Shabiha: 5,000–10,000[4]	60,000 fighters[5] (Rebel claim)
Casualties and losses
Syrian security forces: 3,770(opposition sources)–3,857(government sources: 15 March 2011–21 June 2012)[6] soldiers and policemen killed	Syrian rebels: 2,980[7]–3,235[8] fighters killed
Civilian casualties(including 1,800–2,154 civilians killed during civil uprising): 10,414–10,669 killed overall(government claim) 15,200–16,163 killed overall(opposition claims) 35,000 wounded overall[9] (seeDeaths below for other estimates on killed) 240,000 displaced (including 180,000refugees)

The early insurgency phase of theSyrian civil war lasted from late July 2011 to April 2012, and was associated with the rise of armed oppositional militias across Syria and the beginning of armed revolution against theSyrian Ba'athist regime. Though armed insurrection incidents began as early asJune 2011 when rebels killed 120–140 Syrian security personnel, the beginning of organized insurgency is typically marked by the formation of theFree Syrian Army (FSA) on 29 July 2011, when a group of defected officers declared the establishment of the first organized oppositional military force. Composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel, the rebel army aimed to remove Bashar al-Assad and his government from power.

This period of the war saw the initial civil uprising take on many of the characteristics of a civil war, according to several outside observers, including theUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights, asarmed elements became better organized and began carrying out successful attacks in retaliation for the crackdown by the Syrian government on demonstrators and defectors.^[10]

TheArab Leaguemonitoring mission, initiated in December 2011, ended in failure by February 2012, asSyrian Ba'athist troops andoppositional militants continued to do battle across the country and theSyrian Ba'athist government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besiegedoppositional strongholds.

In early 2012,Kofi Annan acted as the UN–Arab LeagueJoint Special Representative for Syria. His peace plan provided for a ceasefire, but even as the negotiations for it were being conducted and afterwards, the rebels and the Syrian army continued fighting.^[11]: 11TheUnited Nations-backedceasefire was brokered by special envoyKofi Annan and declared in mid-April 2012.

Thecivil uprising phase of the Syrian civil war was an early stage of protests, alongside the subsequent violent reaction by the Ba'athist Syrian state and its security forces, lasting from March to 28 July 2011. The uprising, initially demanding democratic reforms, evolved from initially minor protests, beginning as early as January 2011 and transformed into massive protests in March.

The uprising was marked by massive anti-government opposition demonstrations against the Ba'athist government ofBashar al-Assad, meeting with police and military violence, massive arrests and brutal crackdown, resulting in hundreds of casualties and thousands of wounded.

Despite Bashar al-Assad's attempts to pacify the protests with massive crackdown and use of censorship on one hand and concessions on the other, by the end of April, it became clear the situation was getting out of his control and the Syrian government deployed numerous troops on the ground.

The civil uprising phase created the platform for emergence of militant opposition movements and massive defections from the Syrian Armed Forces, which gradually transformed the conflict from a civil uprising to an armed revolution, and later a full-scale civil war. The rebelFree Syrian Army was created on 29 July 2011, marking the transition into armed insurgency.

During theJune 2011 Jisr ash-Shugur operation, the Syrian army claimed to have begun a crackdown on terrorists between 4 and 12 June, which left 120–140 security personnel dead.^{[12][13][14][15]}

On 29 July 2011, seven defectingSyrian Armed Forces officers formed theFree Syrian Army (FSA), originally composed of defected Syrian military officers and soldiers, aiming "to bring this government (the Assad government) down" with united opposition forces.^[16][17] On 31 July, a nationwide crackdown nicknamed the "Ramadan Massacre" resulted in the death of at least 142 people and hundreds of injuries.^[18] On 23 August, a coalition of anti-government groups called theSyrian National Council was formed. The council, based in Turkey, attempted to organize the opposition. The opposition, however, including the FSA, remained a fractious collection of political groups, longtime exiles, grassroots organizers and armed militants divided along ideological, ethnic and/or sectarian lines.^[19]

Throughout August 2011, government forces stormed major urban centres and outlying regions, and continued to attack protests. On 14 August, theSiege of Latakia continued as theSyrian Navy became involved in the military crackdown for the first time.Gunboats firedheavy machine guns at waterfront districts in Latakia, as ground troops and security agents backed by armour stormed several neighbourhoods.^[22] TheEid ul-Fitr celebrations, which began at the end of August, were muted after security forces fired on protesters gathered in Homs, Daraa, and the suburbs of Damascus.^[23]

By September 2011, Syrian rebels were engaged in an active insurgency campaign in many parts of Syria. A major confrontation between the FSA and the Syrian Armed Forces occurred inAl-Rastan. From 27 September to 1 October, Syrian government forces, backed by tanks and helicopters, led an offensive on the town of Al-Rastan inHoms Governorate, in order to drive out army defectors.^[24] The2011 Battle of Rastan between government forces and the FSA was the longest and most intense action until that time. After a week, the FSA was forced to retreat from Rastan.^[25] To avoid government forces, the leader of the FSA, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, retreated to Turkey.^[26] Many of the rebels fled to the nearby city of Homs.^[27]

By October 2011, the FSA started to receive active support from the Turkish government, which allowed the rebel army to operate itscommand and headquarters from the country's southernHatay Province close to the Syrian border, and itsfield command from inside Syria.^[28]

In October 2011, clashes between government and army units which had defected were being regularly reported. During the first week of the month, sustainedclashes were reported in Jabal al-Zawiya in the mountains ofIdlib Governorate. Syrian rebels also captured most of Idlib city.^[29] In mid-October, clashes in Idlib Governorate included the towns ofBinnish andHass in the governorate near the mountain range ofJabal al-Zawiya.^[30][31] In late October, clashes occurred in the northwestern town ofMaarrat al-Nu'man between government forces and defected soldiers, and near the Turkish border, where 10 security agents and a deserter were killed in a bus ambush.^[32] It was not clear if the defectors linked to these incidents were connected to the FSA.^[33]

According to defectors, in 2011 the Syrian government intentionally released imprisonedIslamist militants and provided them with arms "in order to make itself the least bad choice for the international community".^[34][35] On 19 October 2011 U.S. media reported that "large crowds of Syrians rallied in the northern city of Aleppo in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad". The Syrian government estimated over a million pro-government demonstrators, while others estimated crowds at least "tens of thousands" comparable in size to a pro-government rally "a week earlier in Damascus".^[36][37]

In early November 2011, clashes between the FSA and security forces in Homs escalated as thesiege continued. After six days of bombardment, the Syrian Army stormed the city on 8 November, leading to heavy street fighting in several neighborhoods. Resistance in Homs was significantly greater than that seen in other towns and cities, and some in opposition have referred to the city as the "Capital of the Revolution". Unlike events in Deraa and Hama, operations in Homs failed to quell the unrest.^[27]

November and December 2011 saw increasing rebel attacks, as opposition forces grew in number. In the two months, the FSA launched deadly attacks on anair force intelligence complex in the Damascus suburb ofHarasta, the Ba'ath Syrian Regional Branch youth headquarters inIdlib Governorate and Damascus, an airbase in Homs Governorate, and an intelligence building in Idlib.^[38] On 15 December, opposition fighters ambushed checkpoints and military bases around Daraa, killing 27 soldiers, in one of the largest attacks yet on security forces.^[39] The opposition suffered a major setback on 19 December, when a failed defection in Idlib Governorate led to 72 defectors killed.^[40]

In January 2012, Assad began using large-scale artillery operations against the insurgency, which led to the destruction of many civilian homes due to indiscriminate shelling.^[41][42] By this time, daily protests had dwindled, eclipsed by the spread of armed conflict.^[43] January saw intensifiedclashes around the suburbs of Damascus, with Syrian Army use of tanks and artillery becoming common.Fighting in Zabadani began on 7 January when the Syrian Army stormed the town in an attempt to root out the FSA presence. After the first phase of the battle ended with a ceasefire on 18 January, leaving the FSA in control of the town,^[44] the FSA launched an offensive into nearby Douma.^[45]Fighting in the town lasted from 21 to 30 January, before the rebels were forced to retreat as result of a government counteroffensive. Although the Syrian Army managed to retake most of the suburbs, sporadic fighting continued.^[46]Fighting erupted in Rastan again on 29 January, when dozens of soldiers manning the town's checkpoints defected and began opening fire on troops loyal to the government. Opposition forces gained complete control of the town and surrounding suburbs on 5 February.^[47]

On 3 February, the Syrian Army launcheda major offensive in Homs to retake rebel-held neighborhoods. In early March, after weeks of artillery bombardments and heavy street fighting, the Syrian Army eventually captured the district ofBaba Amr, a rebel stronghold. By the end of March, the Syrian Army retook control of half a dozen districts, leaving them in control of 70 percent of the city.^[48] By 14 March, Syrian troops successfullyousted insurgents from the city of Idlib after days of fighting.^[49] By early April, the estimated death toll of the conflict, according to activists, reached 10,000.^[50] In April 2012, Assad forces began employingattack helicopters against rebel forces.^[41]

In early 2012,Kofi Annan acted as the UN–Arab LeagueJoint Special Representative for Syria. His peace plan provided for a ceasefire, but even as the negotiations for it were being conducted, the rebels and the Syrian army continued fighting even after the peace plan.^[11]: 11

TheUnited Nations-backedceasefire was brokered by special envoyKofi Annan and declared in mid-April 2012, but eventually met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting. By early June 2012, the civil war entered its most violent phase, with fighting spreading all across the country and fatalities mounting in unprecedented numbers. Incommunicado detention, including of children, also continued.^[51]

• Timeline of the Syrian civil war
• Arab Winter

• Cooper, Tom (2015).Syrian Conflagration. The Civil War 2011–2013.Solihull: Helion & Company Limited.ISBN 978-1-910294-10-9.
• Bolling, Jeffrey (29 August 2012)."Rebel Groups in Northern Aleppo Province"(PDF).Washington, D.C.:Institute for the Study of War.

• 2011 in Syria
• 2011 in the Syrian civil war
• 2012 in Syria
• 2012 in the Syrian civil war
• Riots and civil disorder in Syria
• Syrian civil war

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