Timeline of the Syrian Civil War (January–April 2011)

January–February 2011

• 26 or 28 January: In the large northern Kurdish city of Al-Hasakah, a man, Hasan Ali Akleh, soaks himself with gasoline and sets himself on fire, in the same way Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi had in Tunis on 17 December 2010. According to eyewitnesses, the action was "a protest against the Syrian government".
• 28 January - An evening demonstration was held in Raqqa, to complain about the killing of two soldiers of Kurdish descent.
• 31 January: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad criticizes Israel's external role in its domestic affairs
• 2 February: Suhair Atassi leads a sit-in Bab Tuma to protest "systematic looting and the continuing monopoly of Syria's two mobile phone operators, MTN and Syriatel." A group of 20 people in civilian clothing beat and dispersed 15 people who had been holding a candlelight vigil at Bab Tuma in Damascus for Egyptian demonstrators, Human Rights Watch reported.
• 3 February: Syrian opposition groups call on Facebook and Twitter for a "day of rage" on Friday 4 February. This does not lead to protests in Syria on 4 February. A "Day of Rage" was called for in Syria from 4–5 February on social media sites Facebook and Twitter. Protesters demanded governmental reform. Most protests took place outside of Syria, and were small. The protests were expected to begin on 4 February, as social media mobilised the Syrian people for rallies demanding freedom, human rights, and the end to the country's state of emergency. Protests were also scheduled for 5 February in front of the parliament in Damascus, and at Syrian embassies internationally. Al Jazeera reported increased security for the planned "Days of Rage."
• 4 February: Syrian protesters call for a day of anger against the government.
• 5 February: In Al-Hasakah, hundreds of people demonstrate for political reform and an end to emergency law. When hundreds of protesters in Al-Hasakah participated in a mass demonstration, calling for al-Assad's departure, Syrian authorities arrested dozens, and another demonstration was quickly triggered. Suhair Atassi, who runs the banned Jamal Atassi Forum, called for political reforms and the reinstatement of civil rights, as well as for an end to the emergency law that has been in place since 1962. However, no protests occurred on either date. After the failure of attempts to arrange a "Day of Rage," Al Jazeera described the country as "a kingdom of silence". It identified the key factors underlying Syrian stability as the country's strict security measures, the popularity of President Bashar al-Assad, and fear of potential sectarian violence in the aftermath of a government ouster.
• 17 February: A spontaneous demonstration broke out outside the Al-Hamidiyah Souq market in Damascus to protest a police beating of a shop keeper. Several men gathered and blocked a road, while chanting that "The Syrian people will not be humiliated". An eyewitness estimated that there were more than 1,500 demonstrators. Secret police officers arrived on the scene quickly, along with several government officials and finally Syria's interior minister, who dispersed the demonstrators, took the shop owner into his car, and promised an investigation. A couple of hours later, several videos of the events were posted on YouTube.
• 23 February: Syria's justice minister defends the state of emergency by pointing at the state of war with Israel. A proposal of one parliament member to evaluate the harsh emergency laws was voted down with 249 against one MP. During a routine session of the Syrian Parliament, a member proposed that harsh emergency laws be reviewed. The issue was not scheduled for discussion, and its introduction came as a surprise. A pro-government official who was at the session recalled it with anger. The proposal was rapidly quashed, when the speaker put the proposed review to a vote in the chamber, but none of the other 249 MPs supported it.

  1–17 March

• 6 March: In the southern city of Daraa, fifteen teenagers were arrested for writing "الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام" –, was released on bail of 500 Syrian pounds. He is still facing charges for allegedly publishing material harmful to the country.
• Tuesday 15 March, dubbed "day of rage" by activists, hundreds staged protests in Damascus and Aleppo, calling for democratic reforms. The protest in Damascus was violently dispersed, six protesters were detained by security forces according to a witness speaking to the BBC.
• 16 March: Demonstrations took place in Marjeh Square in Damascus, near the Interior Ministry, calling for release of political prisoners. Police threatened them with batons and arrested scores of protesters.
• 17 March: Protests that had begun the previous day in Daraa continued.

  18–25 March

• Friday 18 March: Named "Friday of Dignity" by some protesters, after a call on Facebook page "The Syrian Revolution 2011" protests for freedom and democracy and against corruption were held in several cities after Islamic Friday prayers, including Damascus, Daraa, Homs, Baniyas, Qamishli and Deir ez-Zor. It was called the most serious unrest to take place in Syria for decades.
• 19 March: Funerals were held in Deraa for two protesters killed the day before, drawing up to 20,000 demonstrators who chanted: "The blood of our martyrs won’t be forgotten" and "God, Syria, freedom." Security forces intervened, firing tear gas and live ammunition at the mourners, killing six protesters and injuring 100. Witnesses reported that the gas seemed more toxic than ordinary tear gas. At these funerals, opposition leaders demanded from the authorities the release of political prisoners. On March 20, the government offered to release the students detained on 6 March as a concession.
• 20 March, President Assad sent a delegation to offer condolences to the families of those killed in the clashes in Daraa. Thousands gathered in and around the Omari mosque in Daraa, chanting their demands: release of political prisoners, abolition of emergency law, and: "No fear after today". As the protests heated, the police sprayed tear gas, further angering the protesters who started tearing down a poster of Assad; then the police opened fire into the crowd, witnesses said.
• 21 March, in Daraa, thousands brought the one, killed on Saturday 19, to his grave. They shouted: "God, Syria, Freedom; the people demand the overcoming of corruption" and: "We are no longer afraid". To calm that situation, president Assad ordered the release of the teenagers detained since 6 March and removed provincial governor Faisal Kulthum from his office. Troops were sent to Daraa. Also hundreds demonstrated in the agricultural town Jasim near Daraa.
• 22 March, in Daraa, hundreds of people had gathered around the Omari mosque, the focus of the protests since 18 March, to prevent government troops from storming it. Security forces opened fire, killing four protesters, human rights activists said. An AFP photographer said he was beaten by security forces in Daraa who seized his equipment.
• Early on 23 March in Daraa, Syrian Army police presence was reinforced, and confronted protesters gathered around the Omari mosque in the city center, dispersing the crowd with tear gas and live ammunition, killing 5 or 6 according to early activists' and news reports. An Associated Press reporter heard semi-automatic gunfire.
• 24 March, witnesses reported 20,000 Syrians in Daraa at the funerals of nine protesters killed 23 March, chanting: "The blood of martyrs is not spilt in waste!"
• Friday 25 March, early on the day, 100,000 people in Daraa attended an anti-government demonstration, according to a political activist. Later, as thousands gathered and marched to the main square in the city after the funeral of five protesters killed this week, they chanted : "Maher you coward. Send your troops to liberate the Golan", said a Reuters witness. These thousands moved to the governor's building where they burned a picture of Bashar al-Assad and toppled a statue of Hafez al-Assad, a witness said. Then, he said, armed men on the roof of the officer's club started firing at the crowd; the website of Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports that "apparently" 20 people were killed. Website Aljazeera asserts that protesters also burned the home of the governor in Daraa.

  26–31 March

• 26 March: Activists and human rights groups said, according to Al Jazeera and AFP news agency and The Washington Post and Reuters, that the authorities freed about 260 or ‘more than 200’ or ‘70’ prisoners ; two of those four sources specified that most of those 200 or 260 released prisoners were Islamists.
• 27 March: Early on the day the Syrian state news agency said that armed gangs had attacked neighbourhoods in Latakia, firing from rooftops. Anti-government protesters however accused government forces of opening fire on them. Activists said some demonstrators set fire to a Ba’ath Party building and attacked businesses. The state news agency said later that in the violence 10 or 12 people had died, including residents, "armed elements" and security personnel.
• 28 March: The Reuters news agency reported that its two missing journalists, both Lebanese nationals, had been in the custody of Syrian authorities since 26 March, but were released and they had returned to Lebanon.
• 29 March: After a government appeal on 28 March, today tens of thousands Syrians demonstrated in support of President Assad, in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Al-Hasakah. AP news agency reported that bank employees and other workers were allowed two hours and school children were given the day off to attend these demonstrations. Website Ynetnews, part of the Israeli Yedioth Media Group, mentioned however "hundreds of thousands of Assad supporters" in the streets; and the Syria-based website of Day Press mentioned "millions of Syrian citizens" rallying "expressing loyalty to the motherland".
• 30 March: In a televised address before parliament, President Bashar al-Assad's first address to the nation since the large protests and their crackdown this March began, Assad said that Syria was going through a "test of unity", while "our enemies are targeting Syria". "The enemies" in their "conspiracy" are promoting "Israel's plans" or the "Israeli agenda". "Conspirators" have tried to reinforce sectarianism to incite hatred and "bring down Syria", he said. "Foreign powers", while stirring up insurrection in a bid to destroy Syria, "adopt the principle of 'lie until you believe your lie'", Assad said. Also, Assad targeted social networking websites and pan-Arabic satellite television news channels. His speech was interrupted by sycophants declaring their undying love for the leader.
• 31 March, President Assad promised an investigation into the possibility of replacing the emergency law that is in place since 1963 and into the issue of 150,000 Kurds in the region of Hassakah who have been disenfranchised since the 1962 census.

  1–15 April

• Friday 1 April, after Friday prayers, thousands of protesters in several cities demonstrated themselves to be unsatisfied with, and unimpressed by, the vague promises of reform President Assad had made the previous day.
• 2 April, in Daraa and Homs 21 people were arrested according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, presumably because of their protesting the previous day.
• 3 April: Syrian authorities released 50-year-old Reuters photographer Khaled al-Hariri after six days in detention.
• c. 3–7 April: Quickly after the deadly clash in Douma on 1 April, a high-level Baath party official was sent to Douma to talk to local leaders. Arrangements were made for corpses to be returned to family, injured to be treated, detainees to be freed, and absence of security forces during the funerals. This seems to have stemmed the violence in Douma temporarily, until 15 April.
• 4 April: Assad appointed Mohammad Khaled al-Hannus as the new governor of Daraa. Meanwhile, thousands of Syrians marched through the shuttered streets of Douma, just outside Damascus, chanting antigovernment slogans as they buried at least eight victims of the crackdown on protests held 1 April.
• 5 April: AFP reported the start of "Martyrs Week", a series of rallies organized by the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook group in honor of those killed in recent security crackdowns on pro-reform demonstrations. According to state television, two policemen in rural Damascus were shot to death by unidentified perpetrators. 15 people died in protests in Kafr Batna in Syria.
• 6 April: Syria's education minister today allowed primary school teachers to wear the full Islamic face veil, niqab, again, which had been banned last July, by which measure hundreds of school teachers had been displaced from their jobs, who now may return to their jobs; this, apparently as accommodation towards many angry conservative Muslims. Today Syria also closed its only casino, in Damascus.
• 7 April: Of the 300,000 Syrian Kurds in region Hasakah who were registered as ‘foreigners’ or ‘stateless people’ as a result of a probably arbitrary stripping of their ancestors’ Syrian citizenship in 1962, 220,000 today were granted "Syrian Arab Nationality".
• Friday 8 April, after Friday prayers, in Daraa security forces opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters, a witness told Al Jazeera. 27 demonstrators were killed, hospital sources and witnesses said. Protesters chanted: "The people want the overthrow of the regime". The wounded could not be picked up by ambulances because government security forces prevented them, according to Human Rights Watch after interviewing witnesses. The state-run news agency SANA however said, that "armed groups using live ammunition" during the protests killed 19 members of police and security forces and wounded 75.
• 9 April: Witnesses in the city of Daraa reported that Syrian security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at thousands of protesters who had gathered for a mass funeral near a mosque. In Latakia, witnesses said Syrian security forces used live ammunition to disperse hundreds of people who gathered to protest. Another witness said water trucks had been brought in and were hosing down the streets to wash away blood.
• 10 April: In the area of the Baniyas port, apparently electricity, telephone lines and internet access were cut. After anti-government protests in Baniyas, pro-government gunmen and security forces killed four people, according to human rights activists. In response, an army unit was ambushed, with nine soldiers being killed, the government said.
• Between 10–12 April, in the town of Baida near Baniyas, hundreds of men were arrested.
• 11 April: during a protest at Damascus University, a student was shot and killed by security forces. Students in the Science faculty of Damascus University, located in the Baramkeh area in Damascus, began a demonstration in which they chanted for freedom and support of the people in Daraa and Baniyas. However, the Damascus University Dean of the Faculty of Science, Dr. Mohammad Said Mahasni, denied the reports, and said instead that a number of students gathered in front of the faculty, rejecting attempts of destabilizing Syrian national security, and chanting national slogans and support for Assad. In Baniyas, funerals for the 4 protesters who were shot down by the military led to a new demonstration, and security forces attacked the city until late at night.
• 12 April: The day started with a confirmation that one student was beaten to death by security forces during the demonstration at Damascus University one day earlier. Witnesses reported that the suburb of Bayda in Baniyas was surrounded by tanks, and ongoing gunfire by security forces had led to dozens of injuries, while neither ambulance cars nor necessary food-aid that had been sent from the nearby city Tartus were allowed to enter the village.
• 13 April: in Baida, many women demonstrated to demand that the detained men be freed. Hundreds of women took part in a march demanding the release of 350 men arrested in town of Bayda. Protests also spread to Aleppo University, as security forces and students clashed on the campus of Aleppo's faculty of literature and three students were arrested. In Damascus, about 50 students staged a pro-freedom protest at the faculty of law.
• 14 April: President Assad met with a delegation close to the protesters in Daraa. The Daraa delegation afterwards said, Assad had promised them to lift the emergency law by 25 April.
• Friday 15 April, In the Damascus suburb Douma, thousands of protesters marched towards central Damascus when near Abasyeen Square they were attacked by security forces and intelligence services with pistols and sticks and tear gas, witnesses and activists said.

  16–24 April

• 16 April: After the new Syrian cabinet was sworn in, President Assad addressed the cabinet in a televised speech. After his address 30 March, this was the second time since the uprising began that Assad addressed the nation. Assad said that the emergency law——banning public gatherings of more than five people——would be lifted by next week, pledged dialogue with trade unions, but also said that "maintaining internal stability" in Syria is his top priority: "the Syrian people love order and do not accept chaos and mob rule". Probably referring to the protests since 15 March, he said: "…last week, I found that there is a gap which started to appear between state institutions and the Syrian citizens we need to fill this gap; but it should be filled with one thing which is the trust of the citizens in the institutions of the state."
• 17 April: In Homs, after evening prayers, a group of 40 demonstrators gathered outside a mosque chanting "freedom", according to a witness; men in civilian clothes jumped out of cars and started firing at the crowd; according to activists, 25 people were killed.
• 18 April: In Homs, early on the day, thousands attended the funerals of protesters killed in that town. Mourners reportedly chanted: "Either freedom or death, the people want to topple this regime". A 45-year-old protester told Al Jazeera: "For decades we’ve been ruled by an iron fist, by the force of weapon", "It’s the first time in my life I break the barrier of silence".
• 19 April: In Homs, security forces opened fire on protesters to disperse a mass anti-government protest. On 18 and 19 April together, 21 protesters were shot dead in Homs by security police and Alawite gunmen known as ‘al-shabbiha’. Wissam Tarif, director of the Insan human rights group, told Reuters that civilian shabbiha and uniformed security forces, mixed, and all carrying weapons, were now obvious in the streets of Homs. During 17–19 April, protests were also in nearby towns Rastan and Talbiseh.
• 20 April: Activists said that 4000 university students protested in Daraa. Around 20 students protested at the faculty of medicine of Aleppo University where they were quickly denied and absorbed by a pro-Assad rally.
• 21 April: President Assad endorsed the government law of 19 April, ending Syria's state of emergency. Reuters wrote, and leading activist Al-Maleh said, that this abolition hardly infringed on the powers of security forces to arbitrary arrests and detentions, or on other state tools of repression. Protesters call for Friday to be their biggest yet, in what they dub as "the Great Friday".
• Friday, 22 April: For the first time, major demonstrations occurred in Damascus itself. Other cities where protesting was particularly strong were in Daraa, Baniyas, Qamishli, and Homs. The Douma and Harasta sections of Damascus were particularly filled with protesters. Firing throughout the country resulted 88 deaths among security forces and protesters, making it the bloodiest day so far.
• * Protests, slogans: On this day dubbed by activists "Great Friday", anti-government protests were held in at least 20 towns across Syria. Cries for vengeance mixed with calls for the government's fall. Security forces quelled the protests with live ammunition and tear gas. A protester from a Damascus suburb said via phone to Al Jazeera media network that peaceful demonstrators, going with olive branches, were surprised by the security forces’ shooting. A protester in Douma said to The New York Times: "We are not scared anymore. We are sad and we are disappointed at this regime and at the president. Protests, demonstrations and death are now part of the daily routine". In two Damascus suburbs, protesters tore down Assad's picture and demolished statues of Assad's father. In central Damascus after Friday Prayer at the al-Hassan Mosque, hundreds of people gathered. Some of them chanted: "The people want the fall of the government"; security forces dispersed the protests with tear gas, witnesses said.
• * Casualties: News media and war researchers are not unanimous on the number of civilian casualties on this day. The New York Times estimated on 23 April and on 6 May that number as: "at least 109". The Institute for the Study of War in December 2011 agreed with that number and called 22 April the deadliest day in Syria between March and September 2011. But Al Jazeera English on 29 April 2011 estimated that on 22 April in Daraa alone already 100 people had been killed. First counts of deaths were in Homs 21, in Izra 15. Deaths also were reported in the Damascus suburbs Muadamiyat, Douma, Zamalka, Barza and Qabon.
• * Government reaction: At Friday night, Syrian state television aired a talk show where speakers blamed foreign media, like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and BBC Arabic, for inciting the protests. A New York Times reporter assumed that the Syrian government emphatically tried to keep the largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, relatively subdued.
• 23 April: In Douma and Barza today tens of thousands buried protesters killed the previous day, when security forces fired into these crowds of mourners. Again 11 people were killed, activists and witnesses said. 250 Syrian soldiers were also sent to Harasta, another suburb of Damascus, to confront a "violent gang", a deserted soldier said in June 2011 to Amnesty International, but they did not find a gang there but only 2,000 unarmed protesters, and saw the secret police and security forces open fire on them.
• 24 April: In the northern coastal city of Jableh a crackdown of security forces and Syrian army lasted into the night, killing twelve people. A resident said: "The army is deployed all over the area It’s a street war". A Syrian human rights organisation said that nine civilians were killed in Jableh by security forces and pro-Assad gunmen.

  25–30 April

Attack on Daraa

• 25 April: Tanks and soldiers entered Daraa and Douma. The border with Jordan was also closed. According to an activist, 18 people were killed in Daraa.
• 27 April: The army continued its crack down into the 27th of April, and over the span of three days arrested over 500 people. Several dozen died from the raids. The Syrian government intensified their raids using more tanks and brigades. 2 Jordanian civilians were amongst those killed. On 27 April 233 members of the Ba'ath Party, amongst them parliament members, resigned over the violence against protesters and civilians.
• 28 April: It has been confirmed that there are defections from within the Syrian army. Two battalions were sent into Deraa on 25 April, the fourth division and the fifth division. The fifth division refused to open fire on protesters, and there has been gun battles between the fourth and fifth divisions. The fourth division is controlled directly by Maher Assad, Bashar's brother.
• 29 April: Bashar's forces have cut off Daraa's water supply and electricity several days ago, as well as other cities in Syria. They have confiscated flour and food as well, in an effort to starve the people of Daraa. Activists called for another Friday of protests, dubbed "Solidarity with Daraa day".
• 30 April: The military increased their presence with more tanks and military helicopters. Snipers were positioned on buildings. Tanks began firing indiscriminately on houses, and also destroyed the local mosque. Snipers and military vehicles were also placed in other cities in the country such as Homs. Activists had called for this week, starting this Sunday, to be the "week of breaking the siege of Daraa" with the aim of stopping the siege on Daraa.

Blockading of Douma

• Monday 25 April: In Douma security forces arrested probably handsful of people.
• 26 April: According to a Human Rights Watch researcher, thousands of government troops raided homes in Douma to arrest suspected protesters.
• 27+28 April: Douma was completely sealed off by security forces, with its residents in need of supplies.

  Remaining Syria

• 25 April: The events of 25 April, especially those in Daraa, incited the prominent international news media to entitle the Syrian protests since mid-March with hindsight no longer as merely ‘protests, but as an "uprising". Since 18 March, 400 civilians and dozens of soldiers and policemen had been reported killed.
• 26 April: In the northern city of Jableh people were arrested, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Syrian government said its actions are a response to an Islamist-inspired uprising.
• 27 April: According to a report of refugees fled into Lebanon, on 27 April a massacre may have taken place in Talkalakh, 20 miles due west of Homs and near the north-Lebanese border. Syrian military allegedly separated Sunni Muslims from Alawi Shia Muslims; arrested a popular Sheikh; Sunnis took to the streets protesting; military in tanks opened fire, killing 40 residents. Also residents would have been dragged away and tortured. No other news channel has yet confirmed anything of this story.
• 28 April: The leadership of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, in exile since in 1982 the Brotherhood was crushed by the government, has today for the first time since the demonstrations in Syria began in March, directly supported these protests: "Do not let the regime besiege your compatriots. Chant with one voice for freedom and dignity. Do not allow the tyrant to enslave you. God is great."
• Friday 29 April: On this Friday dubbed "day of rage" in most major towns in Syria protests were held, like Homs, Baniyas, Latakia, Raqqa, Hama, Qamishli, Deir ez-Zor, and, for the first time, also in the heart of Damascus, in the Maidan district. 10,000 protesters in Baniyas reportedly shouted: "liberty, solidarity with Daraa" and "down with the regime", and 15,000 in Qamishli and surrounding towns were said to have yelled: "With our soul and with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for Daraa". In Damascus-suburb Saqba protesters chanted: "We’re the youth revolution, not thugs or terrorists".
• 30 April: Hassan Ismail Abdel Azim, a prominent human rights activist, is arrested from his office by Syrian authorities.