Syrian military operation in the Syrian city of Daraa
The siege of Daraa occurred within the context of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria, in which Daraa was the center of unrest. On 25 April 2011, the Syrian Army began a ten-day siege of the city, an operation that helped escalate the uprising into an armed rebellion and subsequent civil war.
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 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 on 22 February. The students were tortured in the Political Security cells, headed by Atef Najib, a first cousin of President Bashar al-Assad. 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 headquarters, as well as the Syriatel building, owned by Rami Makhlouf–another cousin of President Assad. The central Omari Mosque was turned into a field hospital 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, 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.
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; "they want to teach Syria a lesson by teaching Daraa a lesson", he said. According to "Arizona Daily Star", another resident said: "Let Obama come and take Syria. Let Israel come and take Syria. Let the Jews come. Anything is better than Bashar Assad." According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and another opposition source, the second-in-command of the acting army brigade refused orders to storm the city and was arrested himself.
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" 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.
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.
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".
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 quarter.
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 carriers 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 delivered their first emergency relief supplies to Daraa. 150 students at Daraa University held a brief sit-in.
International reactions.
In response to the siege, European Union countries, including United Nations Security Council members France and the United Kingdom, asked the council to condemn the Syrian government's use of violence, but it was unclear whether council members Russia and China would support that idea. United States president Barack Obama said the U.S. was prepared to freeze Syrian officials' American assets.
References.
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