Siege of Daraa
The siege of Daraa occurred within the context of Arab Spring protests in Syria, beginning on 15 March 2011, with Daraa as the center of uproar. The Syrian Army on 25 April started an eleven-day siege of the city. This harsh reaction would prove to be another step in the escalation of the Syrian conflict, that would eventually escalate into civil war.
The siege involved tanks, helicopters and around 6,000 troops. Up to 244 people were killed, many of them children; also 81 soldiers were killed, and 1,000 people were arrested.
Background
Several Arab Spring demonstrations happened across Syria in first months of 2011. On the 6th of March, in the city of Daraa, between 12 and 15 teenagers were arrested for graffiting messages against the regime, including the Arab Spring slogan Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam, on the 22nd of February. The schoolstudents were reportly tortured in the Political Security cells, chiefed by Atef Najib, cousin of the President Bashar Al-Assad. On the 18th of March, protests erupted demanding the release of the imprisoned children, an end to corruption, and for greater political freedom. The security forces responded with live ammunition, killing three people, and fourth dying the following day. This lead increase on the size of the protests.On the third straight day of protests, on the 20th of March, government forces opened fire once again, killing another person, which brought the deathtoll to five, and injuring dozens. The protests turned violent, setting on fire the local courthouse and Ba'ath party headquarters, as well as the building of Syriatel, owned by Rami Makhlouf, cousin of President Assad. The Omari Mosque was turned into a field hospital for those protesters who feared reprisals going to the hospital. In order to calm the protests, the government sought to meet some of the protesters demands, releasing the children detained on the 6th of March, sacking the governor of Daraa, Faisal Khaltoum, and announcing a decrease of military service time from 21 to 18 months.
On 23 March, security forces stormed on thousand demonstrators near the central Omari mosque in Daraa, killing at least 37 people. Government authorities blamed the clashes on "an armed gang", accusing it of stockpilling 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 and 19 soldiers were killed. In the protests on the all-Syrian “Great Friday” 22 April, in Daraa 100 demonstrators were killed, according to Al Jazeera.
Timeline
Between 25 April and 5 May 2011, the fourth armoured division of the Syrian Army, led by Maher al-Assad, besieged Daraa, a city of 75,000 or 300,000 inhabitants.- Monday 25 April: Residents told: before dawn eight tanks – their first use against protesters since 15 March – drove into town with between hundreds and 6,000 troops; they took three smaller mosques and tried to conquer the Omari Mosque which since March had served as a headquarters for demonstrators; water and electricity and phone lines were cut, snipers took positions on roofs of mosques and were said to have fired, and a mix of soldiers and armed irregular forces, men with guns and knives, searched house-to-house for protesters.
- 26 April: According to human rights groups, dozens of people in Daraa were arrested by security forces. A resident said over the telephone to Associated Press: “We are being subjected to a massacre; children are being killed”.
- 28 April: Al Jazeera suggested, with amateur video pictures, that soldiers in Daraa refused to shoot at demonstrators, or defected, and then were wounded themselves, perhaps shot by the army, after which they were helped by civilians; the government immediately officially denied ‘any such reports’.
- Friday 29 April: Thousands of protesters from outside tried to enter besieged Daraa, security forces fired at them and killed 15, sources told Al Jazeera. In total, 33 people were reported killed today in Daraa, said activists. 156 people were arrested, according to the Syrian military.
- 30 April: Syrian Army troops backed by around 20 tanks and by helicopters, firing tank shells and machine guns and dropping paratroopers on the Omari Mosque, took this mosque that was a focal point for protests since March, killing six people, one of them being the son of the mosque's imam, witnesses said.
- 1 May: Tanks today fired shells into Daraa's ancient Roman quarter, a resident said.
- 4 May: A Syrian military official told 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 Israeli website Ynetnews reported that only about 50 people were killed in Daraa since 25 April. The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies today reported that 244 dead bodies of civilians, many of them children, have been transferred from Daraa to the Tishreen Military Hospital in Damascus. Also 81 dead bodies of soldiers and army officers had arrived from Daraa in that hospital, most of them killed by a gunshot to the back, probably after refusing to shoot civilians, according to DCHRS. An amateur video, reportedly from Daraa, showed dozens of people killed in the streets, people shot through the head. DCHRS speaks of “10 days of massacres” in Daraa, and says army units have been using anti-aircraft machine guns to shell houses in central neighbourhoods. Since 30 April, almost 1,000 men have reportedly been arrested in Daraa, the BBC reports.
- 6 May: Residents insisted the military still remained in force in Daraa with streets largely subdued and residents afraid to leave their homes. Protesters gathered in Tafas, 12 km NNW of Daraa, tried to enter Daraa but could not because Daraa was still besieged, according to witnesses.
- 7 May: The Syrian human-rights organisation Sawasiah estimated that during the 11-days siege 220 civilians were killed in Daraa. The Syrian military declared it had “pursued members of terrorist groups in and around neighbourhoods of Daraa” and “arrested people and seized weapons that these groups have used to attack the army and citizens”.
International reactions
Aftermath
- 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 U.N. humanitarian assessment mission was not given permission to enter Syria and visit Daraa.
- 13 May: Protests erupted in and around besieged Daraa.
- 14 May: Syrian officials announced that soldiers and tanks were being pulled out of Daraa.
- 16 May 2011: 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. 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.