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The siege of Daraa occurred within the context of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria, in which
Daraa Daraa (, Levantine Arabic: ) is a city in southwestern Syria, north of the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Daraa Governorate in the Hauran region. Located south of Damascus on the Damascus–Amman highway, it serves as a way sta ...
was the center of unrest. On 25 April 2011, the
Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...
began a ten-day
siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...
of the city, an operation that helped escalate the uprising into an armed rebellion and subsequent
civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
. The Syrian Army's siege involved tanks, helicopters, and up to 6,000 troops. More than 1,000 people were arrested and more than 244 people were killed, many of them children.


Background

Several
Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
demonstrations occurred across Syria in the early months of 2011. On 6 March, in the city of Daraa, between 12 and 15 teenagers were arrested for making anti-regime
graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
on 22 February. The students were tortured in the Political Security cells, headed by Atef Najib, a first cousin of President
Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...
. On 18 March, protests erupted demanding the release of the imprisoned students, an end to corruption, and for greater political freedom. Security forces responded by shooting demonstrators with live ammunition, killing three people, with a fourth succumbing to their wounds the following day. This caused the protests to increase in size. On 20 March, the third consecutive day of protests, security forces opened fire once again, killing another person–bringing the death toll to five–and injuring dozens. The protests subsequently turned violent, with demonstrators setting fire to the local courthouse and
Ba'ath party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...
headquarters, as well as the Syriatel building, owned by
Rami Makhlouf Rami Makhlouf (; born 10 July 1969) is a Syrian businessman and a maternal cousin of former president Bashar al-Assad. At the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, he was considered one of Syria's richest and most powerful men. According t ...
–another cousin of President Assad. The central Omari Mosque was turned into a
field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile ...
for protesters fearing potential government reprisals targeting the hospital. In order to calm the protests, the Syrian government sought to meet some of the protesters' demands by releasing the youths detained on 6 March, sacking the governor of Daraa, Faisal Khalthoum, and announcing a decrease of military service time from 21 to 18 months. On 23 March, security forces attacked thousands of demonstrators near the Omari Mosque, killing at least 37 people. Government authorities blamed the cause of the clashes on "an armed gang", accusing it of stockpiling weapons and ammunition in the mosque and killing four people. On 8 April, heavy clashes erupted in Daraa between protesters and security forces, in which 27 protesters were killed. According to ''
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...
'', 100 demonstrators were killed during the 22 April "Great Friday" protests in Daraa.


Timeline

Between 25 April and 5 May 2011, the Syrian Army's 4th Armoured Division, led by President Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher al-Assad, besieged and raided Daraa, then a city of 75,000-300,000 people. ; Monday, 25 April: According to residents, before dawn, eight tanks – their first use against protesters since 15 March – drove into the city accompanied by hundreds of soldiers, with some estimating up to 6,000 troops; the troops raided three smaller mosques and tried to capture the Omari Mosque which, since March, had served as a headquarters for demonstrators. Water, electricity, and phone lines were cut, snipers took positions on roofs of mosques––and a mix of soldiers and irregular militants armed with guns and knives searched house-to-house for protesters. :Hundreds of people were killed in the predawn raid. Corpses were lying in the streets and could not be retrieved without risk of being shot at, a local resident told media over
satellite phone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefo ...
; "they want to teach Syria a lesson by teaching Daraa a lesson", he said. According to ''
Arizona Daily Star The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is an American daily newspaper based in Tucson, Arizona, and owned by Lee Enterprises. It serves Tucson and surrounding districts of Southern Arizona in the United States. History 1877–1925 L. C. Hughes was the ...
'', another resident said: "Let Obama come and take Syria. Let
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
come and take Syria. Let the Jews come. Anything is better than Bashar Assad." According to the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR; ), founded in May 2006, is a United Kingdom-based information office whose stated aim is to document human rights abuses in Syria; since 2011 it has focused on the Syrian Civil War. ...
(SOHR) and another opposition source, the second-in-command of the acting army brigade refused orders to storm the city and was arrested himself. ;Tuesday, 26 April: According to human rights groups, hundreds of people in Daraa were arrested by security forces. A resident said over the telephone to ''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
'': "We are being subjected to a massacre; children are being killed". ;Thursday, 28 April:
Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...
, citing amateur video and pictures, suggested that soldiers in Daraa were possibly being injured by their fellow soldiers for refusing to shoot at demonstrators or defecting, after which they were helped by civilians; the government officially denied "any such reports".Al Jazeera's correspondent Rula Amin, Damascus, in video clip at 12:59 pm, 28Apr2011, in: :People in Daraa reportedly still could not leave their homes because snipers shot everything that moved, sources told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera and the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' estimated that between 25 and 28 April, 42 to 50 people were killed in Daraa by security forces. According to the ''Los Angeles Times'', a resident said that an entire army division or brigade had defected and was hiding among the people; the claim could not be verified due to foreign journalists not being granted access in Syria. ; Friday, 29 April: Thousands of protesters from outside Daraa attempted to enter the besieged city and were shot at by security forces, killing 15, sources told Al Jazeera. :Daraa was now completely surrounded by tanks and armed troops, with snipers still perched on roofs and hiding in minarets of mosques, an eyewitness said to Al Jazeera over the phone. The eyewitness added that dead bodies remained rotting in the streets because collecting them was risking being shot; morgues contained 83 corpses, according to a prominent local lawyer, Tamer al-Jahamani. Activists said a total of 33 people were reported killed in Daraa on 29 April. : The government claimed it was battling "extremist and terrorist groups" in Daraa and that two soldiers were killed. 156 people were arrested, according to the Syrian military. ; Saturday, 30 April: Syrian Army forces, supported by helicopters and around 20 tanks, fired tank shells and machine guns and dropped paratroopers on the Omari Mosque, capturing it; six people were killed in the operation, one of them being the son of the mosque's imam, witnesses said. :A witness told Al Jazeera that 300 soldiers had defected and joined the protesters, and that "there's no food, no medicine, no electricity, we are collecting rain water to drink". ; 1 May: Daraa inhabitants were still confined to their homes with no water, fuel, or electricity and with communications still down. Residents began chanting "God is Great!" to each other from their windows in the evenings, reportedly infuriating security forces. :A source in Daraa told Al Jazeera that security forces were intensifying their house-to-house searches and that hundreds of people had been arrested. The government confirmed that 149 people had been arrested. :A resident claimed tanks fired shells into the city's
ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
quarter. ; 4 May: A Syrian military official said that security forces had arrested members of an armed terrorist group in Daraa, where they had found weapons and ammunition hidden underground and in gardens. ; 5 May: The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS) reported that 244 dead bodies of civilians, many of them children, had been transferred from Daraa to the Tishreen Military Hospital in
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
along with 81 corpses of soldiers and army officers, most of them killed by a gunshot to the back, probably after refusing to shoot civilians, DCHRS added. An amateur video, reportedly from Daraa, showed dozens of people killed in the streets, with many apparently shot through the head. DCHRS referred to the Daraa siege as "10 days of massacres", and said army units had been using anti-aircraft weapons to attack houses in central neighbourhoods. According to the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, almost 1,000 men had been arrested since 30 April. :Syria's state run news agency and military officials announced that the military had "carried out" and completed "its mission in detaining terrorists" and restoring calm to Daraa and that army units had begun a "gradual withdrawal". An AFP correspondent witnessed 350 soldiers, 20
armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...
s and 20 lorries driving out of the city, while local witnesses saw a column of around 30 tanks on armoured carriers heading north from Daraa. Army units remained deployed at entrances to the city. :Trucks carrying drinking water, food, and first aid material and experts from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the
International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...
delivered their first emergency relief supplies to Daraa. 150 students at Daraa University held a brief
sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
.


International reactions

In response to the siege,
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
countries, including
United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
members
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, asked the council to condemn the Syrian government's use of violence, but it was unclear whether council members
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and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
would support that idea.
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
president
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
said the U.S. was prepared to freeze Syrian officials' American assets.


Aftermath

*6 May: Residents insisted the military still remained a force in Daraa with streets largely subdued and residents afraid to leave their homes. Protesters gathered in Tafas, 12 km NNW of Daraa, and tried to enter the city but could not due to the military, according to witnesses. *9 May: According to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, the Syrian army used schools and a soccer stadium as makeshift prisons for the hundreds of arrests of recent days. A
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
humanitarian assessment mission was not given permission to enter Syria and visit Daraa. *13 May: Protests erupted in and around Daraa. *14 May: Syrian officials announced that soldiers and tanks were being pulled out of Daraa. *16 May: The army allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours a day, a human rights activist said. On the outskirts of Daraa, two mass graves were reportedly discovered with 24 and 7 bodies, respectively. Within an hour the Syrian army reportedly took control of the larger site, started removing the corpses and confiscated mobile phones of witnesses. The story could not be independently verified, partly because foreign reporters were not granted access into Syria.


See also

*


References


External links


We’ve Never Seen Such Horror
''
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
'', 1 June 2011
By All Means Necessary!
''
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
'', 16 December 2011 {{coord, 32.6167, N, 36.1167, E, source:wikidata, display=title Daraa Siege Battles of the Syrian civil war in 2011
Daraa Daraa (, Levantine Arabic: ) is a city in southwestern Syria, north of the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Daraa Governorate in the Hauran region. Located south of Damascus on the Damascus–Amman highway, it serves as a way sta ...
Daraa Daraa (, Levantine Arabic: ) is a city in southwestern Syria, north of the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Daraa Governorate in the Hauran region. Located south of Damascus on the Damascus–Amman highway, it serves as a way sta ...
Military operations of the Syrian civil war involving the Syrian government April 2011 in Syria May 2011 in Syria April 2011 crimes in Asia May 2011 crimes in Asia Massacres of the Syrian civil war perpetrated by the Syrian Army Massacres in 2011 Massacres of protesters in Asia Mosque massacres in Asia Attacks on mosques in Syria Attacks on buildings and structures in 2011 2011 in Islam 21st-century attacks on mosques