Twelve days of rebel offensive in Syria They have ended Bashar al-Assad’s regimewhich had been waging a civil war against different insurgent groups since 2011 and which from 2019 until the end of last November seemed to have the situation under control.
These are the most notable dates since the beginning of the conflict in Syria.
May 15, 2011: Within the framework of the so-called “Arab Spring” protests break out against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, under the slogan “A Syria without tyranny.” Syria plunges into civil war.
March 7, 2013: The rebel Syrian Islamic Front (FIS) announces “the total liberation” of Raqqa after taking it from the regime.
June 13, 2013: The US approves the sending of weapons to the opposition.
August 21, 2013: The opposition denounces 1,300 deaths from chemical weapons on the outskirts of Damascus.
January 14, 2014: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant takes control of Al Raqa (northern Syria), which it will turn into the symbolic capital of its caliphate.
June 29, 2014: The jihadists impose a caliphate, which extends from Diyala -eastern Iraq- to Aleppo -northwest Syria-. The group renames itself Islamic State (IS) and abandons the surname of Iraq and the Levant that it had been using.
July 4, 2014: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaims himself caliph of all Muslims from the Al Nuri mosque, west of Mosul (Iraq), in his first and only public appearance.
July 14, 2014: IS controls more than 95% of Deir al Zur, bordering Iraq.
August 19, 2014: A video shows the beheading in Syria of journalist James Wright Foley, the first of many others executed.
August 24, 2014: IS conquers the last bastion of the Syrian regime in Al Raqqa, 200 kilometers from Aleppo, where it establishes its capital.
September 23, 2014: The US and allies launch airstrikes against IS positions.
January 26, 2015: Kurdish militias expel IS from Kobani, one of the main Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria, a symbol of the unity of that people.
May 21, 2015: IS now controls more than 50% of Syrian territory after taking over a large part of Palmyra, the center of the country, where in the following months they will destroy important archaeological remains.
September 27, 2015: French aviation begins bombing raids against IS.
September 30, 2015: Russian intervention begins with air strikes against IS.
October 4, 2015: IS IS destroys the Arc de Triomphe in Palmyra. Previously, three emblematic funerary towers from the 1st century AD and the temple of Baal were dynamited.
October 12, 2015: The Democratic Syrian Forces (FSD) are created, an alliance led by Kurdish militias and US allies.
March 27, 2016: The Syrian army recovers Palmyra.
September 23, 2016: Syrian regime offensive in Aleppo.
December 22, 2016: The Syrian armed forces, with Russian support, conquer Aleppo.
March 2, 2017: The Syrian Army expels IS from Palmyra.
October 17, 2017: The Kurdish FSD militias take full control of Al Raqa from IS.
November 2, 2017: The Syrian army takes the city of Deir al Zur (northeast Syria).
December 9, 2017: Iraq announces the end of the war against IS by regaining control of the entire border with Syria.
October 29, 2018: Offensive against IS by the Kurdish militias in the north, and by the Syrian army and Russia in the east and center.
December 11, 2018: US President Donald Trump announces the virtual defeat of the Islamic State, which has 1% of the caliphate left.
December 19, 2018: The White House announces the beginning of its withdrawal.
March 1, 2019: Kurdish militias undertake the assault on Al Baguz, the last bastion of IS. Days later the jihadists begin to surrender.
February 25, 2021: The US bombs pro-Iran militias in Syria, in the first attack ordered by Joe Biden since he came to power.
February 3, 2022: The US confirms the death of Ibrahim al Qurashi, leader of IS in Syria.
September 14, 2022: A UN report denounces that Russian bombings against civilians in Syria continue.
June 29, 2023: The UN announces the creation of a body to search for thousands of missing Syrians, which Damascus rejects.
November 27, 2024: An insurgent coalition led by the Levant Liberation Organization (heir to the former Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda), supported by Turkey, begins an offensive against the Assad Government.
November 28, 2024: Rebels take control of most of the northeastern province of Idlib
November 30, 2024: The insurgents conquer Aleppo with hardly any resistance.
December 5, 2024: The city of Hama, in the center of the country. falls into the hands of the rebels.
December 7, 2024: The rebels continue their advance towards Damascus and Bashar al-Assad’s regime is surrounded.
December 8, 2024: The insurgents proclaim their victory and the flight of Bashar al-Assad from Damascus is reported.
