The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2012, during which time the spate of protests that began in January 2011 lasted into another calendar year. An Arab League monitoring mission ended in failure as Syrian troops and anti-government militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged opposition strongholds. A United Nations-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting.
January 2012
1 January Multiple reports on Twitter claimed that Syrians in several restive neighborhoods and cities, including al-Midan in central Damascus, Baba Amr in Homs, and Idlib city, were marching in New Year's Day protests against the government in the early morning, shortly after midnight. The opposition Local Coordinating Committees announced it had confirmed 5,862 deaths in the Syrian uprising during 2011, including 287 prisoners allegedly tortured to death. The LCC also announced the first confirmed death from the uprising in 2012, a wounded person who died due to insufficient blood plasma supply at a hospital. That death toll rose to eight, several of them fatalities from Syrian security forces firing on protesters in the Damascene suburb of Daria, the LCC reported near the end of the day.
Neoconservative commentator Nick Cohen, writing for the British newspaper The Guardian, said that the Western world should intervene militarily to oust President Bashar al-Assad and stop the Syrian Army from committing further human rights violations. The editorial echoed opposition claims that interrogators in Aleppo had invented a new type of torture wherein detainees are forced to stand on a heated metal plate until they confess or else collapse from extensive damage to their feet.
The Arab Parliament, a consultative pan-Arab body created by the Arab League, called for the withdrawal of the supranational organization's observers from Syria. Ali El-Salem El-Dekbas, the speaker of the parliament, said the observers were doing no good and it was a disgrace to keep them in Syria with the crackdown ongoing. "The mission of the Arab League team has missed its aim of stopping the killing of children and ensuring the withdrawal of troops from the Syrian streets, giving the Syrian regime a cover to commit inhumane acts under the noses of the Arab League observers", Dekbas said in a statement.
Assad insider and Syrian security officer Colonel Hafez Makhlouf's plans to visit Switzerland were waylaid when the Swiss Federal Tribunal ruled that Makhlouf should not be granted a visa. Makhlouf had reportedly planned to consult with an attorney in Switzerland on a bid to overturn international sanctions freezing his assets and restricting his travel.
2 January Nabil Elaraby, secretary-general of the Arab League, defended the observer mission after the Arab Parliament's call for its withdrawal. Elaraby claimed that, as a result of the monitors' presence placing pressure on the Syrian government to comply with the Arab peace initiative, Syrian Army (SA) tanks had been withdrawn from cities, almost 3,500 detainees had been released, and humanitarian aid had been delivered to formerly besieged cities. However, contradicting mission leader General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi's remarks on Newshour two days earlier, Elaraby acknowledged snipers remained in several areas and shooting was still ongoing, though it was hard for monitors to tell who was shooting and at whom. Opposition activists contested Elaraby's remarks, telling the Los Angeles Times that many tanks had not withdrawn and were being hidden within striking distance of city centers in restive areas. Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset that he judged Assad's remaining time in power could be measured in weeks.
The opposition Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) said four were killed in Syria by security forces as of 9 am local time. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the state-run media outlet in Syria, said a school worker was killed by gunmen holding her hostage and a journalist died of wounds suffered in a shooting in Daraya, a Damascus suburb, some days earlier.
In northern Syria's Idlib Governorate, near the border with Turkey, the opposition Syrian Observatory For Human Rights (SOHR) said that, despite a self-imposed moratorium on offensive actions against the regime during the Arab League mission, Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters captured two military checkpoints and took several dozen soldiers prisoner, and clashed with security forces at a third, leaving an unspecified number of SA soldiers dead or wounded. The claim could not be immediately confirmed due to tight restrictions on foreign media in Syria.
3 January According to the SOHR, at least 18 people were killed in Jassem during clashes between SA soldiers after loyalist troops allegedly fired on comrades who were attempting to defect. Security forces swept through the area, detaining more than 100, after the fighting. Witnesses said several were killed when security forces fired live ammunition into demonstrators massing in Hama.
According to SANA, a policeman was shot dead outside Homs National Hospital and another policeman was shot dead at al-Khudra market, Idlib. The Syrian government claimed "terrorists" destroyed a gas pipeline near Rastan, disrupting the electricity supply to parts of the country.
FSA leader Colonel Riad al-Asaad said the FSA may mount "a huge escalation of our operations" in coming days. However, some analysts cast aspersions on the claim, suggesting Asaad may be more a figurehead than a practical leader.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, the French head of state, accused Assad of committing "massacres" in Syria. His criticism was echoed by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who called on the Syrian government to allow the Arab League's monitors unrestricted access. In Cairo, the Arab League called an emergency meeting for 7 January to review the observer mission's work and discuss its future.
4 January Syrian Defence Ministry official Mahmoud Sleiman Hajj Hamad defected to the opposition, The Guardian and other major news outlets reported. Hamad was the Head Inspector of the Syrian Ministry of Defence. He also held a press conference on Wednesday in Cairo to announce his defection. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hamad, who was also an inspector at the monetary center for the interior ministry, denied government claims that the ongoing violence was caused by "terrorists" aided from abroad. "We were analysing and seeing for ourselves that the regime's story about armed gangs going out and killing protesters was all lies," he said. "I confirm there are no armed gangs, they are all unarmed protesters". Hamad said the government has spent about $40m on loyalist militias to crush demonstrations since March, as security forces, at times backed by tanks, laid siege to protests hubs across the nation. "While auditing, I found two billion Syrian pounds [$40m] paid out to the regime's paid thugs, and seen an increase in the spending of the intelligence and defense ministries for the purpose of paying thugs. We saw them preparing and heading out in their armored vehicles and buses toward the young protesters and killing them. It has been happening since the beginning of the protests". Hamad also said most government officials and employees want to defect but are afraid of the consequences. "Syrian government officials live in a kind of prison...No one can go anywhere without being accompanied by a member of the security services," he added.
Hamad continued that he has seen proof that Iran and Iraq are aiding the Syrian government's crackdown. Hamad also praised the FSA.
Meanwhile, the LCC reported at least five deaths and numerous injuries it described as "serious" as a result of security forces' actions. The SNC announced a new official website at syriancouncil.org.
SANA reported that a gas pipeline and a bridge were bombed near al-Rastan. Mihajja Bridge in Daraa Countryside was also reportedly damaged by a bomb, which targeted a police patrol. The blast and gunfire that followed reportedly killed one policeman and wounded five. Meanwhile, a Baath Party worker was shot dead as he drove his car in Hama Countryside, SANA said.
5 January Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani criticized the Arab League mission in Syria, saying after a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York City, "I said we must evaluate the types of mistakes it made and without a shadow of a doubt I see mistakes, even though we went in to observe, not to stop the violence." He said he had suggested to Ban that the UN could take a role in training Arab League personnel in how to monitor human rights situations in the future. Despite Sheikh Hamad's remarks, Reuters reported citing sources within Arab governments that the Arab League was likely to decide over the weekend to keep the observers in Syria. Meanwhile, SNC President Burhan Ghalioun suggested a military intervention in Syria would not need to be NATO-led and could be done on a more limited scale than in the Libyan Civil War. Influential Iranian parliamentarian Alaeddin Boroujerdi took the opposite tack, accusing Turkey of threatening the "stability" of the region by criticizing the Syrian government and harboring the FSA and other political dissidents. Boroujerdi called for Ankara to modify its stance to be in line with Tehran's approach of rejecting all international criticism of Damascus' handling of the uprising.
In Syria itself, the government reported it had released 552 detainees "whose hands were not stained with blood". Kurdish media reported the death of a young Kurdish man in Harasta and three injuries to Kurds in Qamishlo, all allegedly at the hands of loyalist snipers. The accounts could not be independently confirmed.
According to SANA, a policeman and two bystanders were killed in a drive-by-shooting in Homs, while another two policemen were injured by an explosive device in al-Tarnabeh, Idlib province. Two rebels were allegedly killed when a bomb prematurely exploded in Idlib city industrial zone. Meanwhile, the mayor of al-Sina'a, al-Tadamon and Basatin Saleh district was shot dead outside his house in the city of Jableh, SANA reported.
6 January Syrian state television reported that dozens of people died in a suicide bombing in the al-Midan quarter of Damascus (see January 2012 al-Midan bombing). The attack allegedly targeted a police bus, leaving 25 people dead and 46 wounded. The Syrian government immediately called the attack a "continuation of the terrorist acts targeting innocent civilians" and said it "reflects the criminal mentality of perpetrators and their antagonism towards moral heritage and national values", while Colonel Asaad and the SNC both issued statements accusing the government of staging the attack to sully the opposition's image and deter a planned protest in the area, one of the hubs of the uprising. Later in the day, SANA reported that an explosion caused by "terrorists" had severed an oil pipeline between Hama and Idlib governorates.
Meanwhile, according to Al Arabiya, an Arab League team of monitors withdrew from the Damascus suburb of Arbeen after loyalist forces shot at them as they toured the streets. CNN reported that the incident occurred when protesters surrounded the monitors, chanting slogans against the government, and security forces opened fire on them, endangering the observers.
A Syrian opposition member claimed that he learned from anonymous security forces in Aleppo that the Syrian government was planning an orchestrated bombing in Aleppo.