Syrian Civil War 2011-2012 - Societa italiana di storia militare

The Battle of Damascus, also known as Operation Damascus Volcano, started on 15 July 2012 during the Syrian civil war. It is
unclear who started the battle. Thousands of rebels infiltrated the capital from the surrounding countryside. Following this, according
to some reports, the opposition forces launched an operation to capture the capital, while according to other reports, the military
learned of the large-scale rebel operation beforehand and made a preemptive strike. Some reports even suggested the rebels launched
the operation prematurely due to their plans being discovered by the security forces.
After the rebels initially captured half a dozen districts and killed four high-ranking government ministers in a bombing, opposition
forces were forced to retreat following a military counter-attack, leaving the army in control of the capital after two weeks of fighting.
It was the first time tanks and helicopters had been deployed in central Damascus and left parts of the city as a warzone.
Operation Damascus Volcano On 15 July, fierce fighting was reported in some quarters of central Damascus as the army moved in
to dislodge rebels. The rebels fighting were the ones who were routed from Douma and other suburbs and fled to Damascus itself.
Fighting also closed the road leading from central Damascus to airport. [22] The rebels were also on the offensive, attacking the Hajar
al-Aswad district. [23]
On 16 July, for a second day, heavy clashes in the southern Midan and Tadhamon districts of Damascus raged [24] with the military
managing to surround the rebel forces in the area and sending tanks and other armored vehicles into the neighborhoods. The FSA had
reportedly taken control of the two districts earlier and the military was making attempts to overrun it. [25] The rebels called the clashes
a raid by them against the capital, [26] while the government called it a 48-hour military operation to clear the area of any opposition
forces. There were also indications that the government knew about the planned rebel raid and acted on the information. According to
state TV, the military killed over 80 rebel fighters during the fighting. [6] On 17 July, shooting was reported in one of the main central
streets and machine-gun fire was reported in nearby Sabaa Bahrat Square, site of the Central Bank of Syria, which was the scene of
several major pro-government demonstrations. [27] A brief firefight also erupted near the Syrian parliament building. [28] Fighting was
ongoing in the southern Midan and Kfar Sousa districts and the northern Barzeh and Qabun districts. Artillery shelling was reported in
all of them and specifically in Midan it was reported to be "hysterical", according to activists. At the same time, in Barzeh and Qabun,
helicopter rocket strikes were reported. [27] Later, helicopter strikes were reportedly hitting all four neighborhoods. [29] The state-run
news agency reported that rebel forces had retreated from the Nahr Aisha district to Midan, where fighting was continuing. [30] Army
reinforcements were sent from the Golan Heights to help defend the capital. [31] This was confirmed by Israeli army intelligence. "The
Syrian military is acting very brutally, which shows the regime is desperate. Its control of Damascus is getting weaker," Major
General Aviv Kochavi told a parliamentary committee in Israel. [27] The rebels claimed to have killed 70 soldiers and pro-government
militiamen in the previous two days of clashes, [14] while the government reported 14 rebel vehicles were destroyed [12] and an army
officer stated that they killed 33 rebels, wounded 15 and captured 145 in the day's fighting in the Qaboun area, where the majority of
opposition forces were reportedly. [7] An activist, Shakeeb al-Jabri, claimed that more than 200 soldiers had been killed or wounded in
total. A deputy police chief, Brigadier General Issa Duba, was said to have died from wounds sustained during the clashes, according
to a pro-Assad website. [15] The FSA stated they destroyed one armored vehicle and captured another and that, among the members of
the Syrian military who were killed, were several rooftop snipers. [17][18] The opposition also claimed to have shot down an army
helicopter in the Qaboun district. [19][27] There were contradictions among the rebels themselves on the nature of the conflict. One FSA
commander declared that the Battle for liberation of Damascus had begun, [32] with another dubbing it Operation Damascus
Volcano. [27] But Tarek, the rebel spokesman in Damascus, stated the clashes were still only skirmishes. He also said the FSA didn't
start the battle, which would be in line with earlier reports that the military made a preemptive strike on the opposition forces, after
learning of their plan for the attack on the capital. [33] Government Information Minister Omran Zoabi stated that the military
confronted rebel forces who infiltrated the city, surrounded them and forced many to retreat, while the rest were still being dealt
with. [19] RT reporter Maria Finoshina stated that fighting was nowhere near the level she experienced during the government assault
on the suburb of Douma the previous week. She said that except for continuing occasional gunfire and military patrols “it doesn't
seem like final or decisive battle for the capital". [34] Several videos of the fighting in the capital emerged during the day. [35][36]
Damascus bombing Main article: 2012 Damascus bombing On 18 July, Syrian state TV reported that a suicide attack that targeted
National Security headquarters in Damascus killed Syrian defense minister General Daoud Rajha during a meeting of ministers and a
number of heads of (security) agencies. Many other VIPs were wounded and killed in the attack as well. [1] Also killed were Assef
Shawkat, Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and deputy defense minister, [37] the assistant to the vice president general Hassan
Turkomani [38][39] and Hafez Makhlouf, head of investigations at the Syrian Intelligence Agency. [40] The country's intelligence chief
Hisham Bekhityar was seriously wounded. [41] There were conflicting reports on the fate of the Interior minister Mohammad Ibrahim
al-Shaar with initial accounts stating that he had also been killed, but later state TV reported that he survived although wounded. [42]
Additional reports stated that he was in stable condition. [43] The bomber was reportedly a bodyguard of one of the meeting
attendant. [44] The opposition meanwhile claimed that the cause of the explosion was not a suicide bomber, but that a rebel insider
planted bombs inside of the building and detonated it remotely from a distant location. [45] Also, during the night, residents reported
that an army barracks near Qasr Asha'b (Palace of the People), about a hundred meters from the presidential palace itself, came under
heavy fire with residents posting video showing a fire, but no explosions were heard. [1] Earlier in the day, SANA stated that
government troops were pushing into the Midan district. At the same time, SOHR relayed that the Barzeh and Qaboun districts were
under helicopter attack. [46] Fighting was also reported in the Kfar Souseh and Nahr Aisha districts. [47] After the bombing, the Free
Syrian Army claimed that army troops had withdrew from the Midan district. However, less than an hour later, state TV was claimed
to be broadcasting live footage of clashes in the neighborhood. According to Al-Jazeera, the military shelled the district. Early in the
evening, opposition activists reported that Midan was raided by the military. The FSA meanwhile moved its troops to the al-Sabina
area. [48] Residents in the Barzeh district, where rebels were holding out earlier, reported that only government troops were to be found
in the neighborhood's streets. [49] Opposition activists claimed that Syrian army commander Mohammad al-Bardan defected to the rebel
side along with his soldiers [48] and Al Arabiya reported that soldiers from 3rd Armored Division were withdrawing from several
Damascus districts and leaving their tanks behind following the bombing. [50] However, this was not independently confirmed or
relayed by other news media. Reuters reported that the Syrian Army escalated its response to the bombing by firing on suburbs from
artillery batteries located on a mountain overlooking Damascus. [51] Al Jazeera meanwhile reported that FSA was able to shot down
two helicopters that have been shelling Tadamon and Al-Hajjar al-Aswad districts. As before, this report could not be independently
verified due to restrictions placed on the journalists. [48] A monitoring group, SOHR, reported that 60 soldiers had been killed on the
third and fourth day of fighting. [52] The security forces gave resident 48 hours to flee the fighting area. One military source told that