The Siege of Homs was a military confrontation between the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition in the city of Homs, a major rebel stronghold during the Syrian Civil War. The siege lasted three years from May 2011 to May 2014, and ultimately resulted in an opposition withdrawal from the city.
Nationwide anti-government protests began in March 2011, and clashes between security forces and protestors in Homs intensified in April. In early May 2011, the Syrian military conducted a crackdown against anti-government protesters in Homs, some of whom were armed and fired on security forces. Though government forces had succeeded in temporarily quelling the March–April Daraa protests during a similar military operation, their early May operation in Homs failed in quickly subduing the civil resistance. By September, sectarian clashes and bloodshed in Homs between Alawites and Sunnis played a larger role in the Homs unrest than in the rest of Syria.
In late October 2011, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigade consisting of many defected army officers repeatedly ambushed government security forces around the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs and, through early November, successfully defended it from government counterattacks. In late December, an Arab mission was sent to monitor the situation following an Arab League plan to dissuade the government crackdown. Following the abortive mission, the Syrian Army in February 2012 launched an offensive against Baba Amr, shelling the entire district and blocking all supply routes. In early March, government forces launched a ground assault into Baba Amr, forcing the rebels to withdraw from the neighborhood.
By early May 2012, following a United Nations-brokered ceasefire, only sporadic street fighting and shelling occurred. During this time, the government was in control of most of the city while the opposition held between 15% and 20% of it; fighting for control of a similar-sized area was still ongoing. In December 2012, the Syrian Army captured the district of Deir Baalba, leaving only the Old City, Khalidiya district, and a few other areas under rebel control.
In early March 2013, government forces launched an assault into several opposition-controlled neighborhoods, but the rebels–reinforced by units that arrived from the nearby rebel-controlled town of al-Qusayr–repelled the attacks. In mid-March, rebels attempted to retake Baba Amr but were forced to pull back later in the month. In late March and early April, the Iranian-backed Shia militia Hezbollah fully intervened in the siege, reinforcing Syrian government forces. In late July, government forces captured the Khalidiya district.
In early May 2014, following an agreement reached between the government and the opposition, rebel forces were allowed to evacuate the city, leaving Homs under full government control.
Background
On 15 March 2011, a protest movement against the Syrian government, particularly its corruption and repression, began to escalate as simultaneous demonstrations took place in major cities across Syria. The protests spread to Homs on 18 March after online calls for a "Friday of Dignity" (Arabic: جمعة الكرامة) in which thousands of demonstrators took to the streets after Friday prayers. Police conducted many arrests and assaulted protesters while attempting to disperse the crowds. As protests continued into April, security forces began firing on demonstrators, resulting in dozens of deaths. Homs, once one of the most restive cities in Syria, became what some activists labeled the "Capital of the Revolution".
Siege
May 2011 resistance
On 6 May 2011, following a successful operation against protestors in Daraa, the Syrian military confronted and clashed with protesters, after Friday prayers, in Homs. According to the opposition, 15 protesters were killed during the clashes, while the government stated that 11 soldiers and policemen were killed, including five at one checkpoint, after they were attacked by unknown gunmen. On the night of 7 May, the military cut electricity to Homs. The next day, 8 May, Army units–assisted by tanks–entered several of the city's districts, including Baba Amr and Bab Sebaa, as soldiers conducted a manhunt for all known opposition activists and supporters. That day, unidentified gunmen attacked a bus entering the city that was carrying workers who were returning from work in Lebanon, killing ten people and wounding three.
By 10 May, the military had reportedly established total control over Homs. However, the next morning, tank and machine gun fire was heard in the Baba Amr district and in some nearby villages. Five to nine people were reported to have been killed in the clashes.
On 11 May, Bedouin villages in the Homs area were also reportedly targeted by the military operation.
On 12 May, it was reported that security forces arrested a veteran human rights campaigner, Naji Tayara.
On 20 May, anti-Assad demonstrations in Homs were reportedly met with machine gun fire from security forces, leaving 11 people dead. One week later, on 27 May, another anti-government protest was suppressed by the military in clashes that left three people dead. On 30 May, seven protestors and one member of the security forces were killed in clashes in the city.
July–November 2011
On 17 July, army tanks and troops deployed and took up positions in Dawar Al Khalidya in Homs and killed at least 30 people. The operation was apparently prompted after three government supporters were kidnapped a week prior and killed, with their dismembered bodies being returned to their relatives on 17 July.
By September 2011, sectarian bloodshed, such as assassinations of academics without clear ties to protestors nor to the central government, played a larger role in Homs than in the rest of Syria.
Throughout September and October there were reported clashes in the northern section of the city, especially the neighborhood of Dayr Baalba. There was also occasional violence in Bab al-Sebaa, Baba Amr and other places. In late September, fighting in the nearby town of Rastan forced several rebel groups to flee to Homs. In late October, one of the rebel groups, the Khalid ibn al-Walid Brigade of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which consisted of many defected Syrian army officers, repeatedly ambushed government security forces around Baba Amr and, through early November, became its garrison force.
On the night of 28 October, fierce clashes involving the Free Syrian Army and government forces broke out in Bab al-Sebaa district. The next day, these clashes spread to Baba Amr and al-Qusur. During the street fighting in Bab al-Sebaa, 17 soldiers were killed, while 20 soldiers were killed and 53 wounded in Baba Amr.
In early November, government forces began a clearance operation in response to continued armed resistance in the Homs area by the Free Syrian Army.
On 3 November, tanks opened fire on the Baba Amr district, where soldiers were killed several days prior by rebels. By the next day, more than 100 people, including civilians, were reportedly killed in the operations; several tanks were reportedly destroyed by the FSA during the clashes. On 8 November, it was reported that the Syrian Army took firm control of Baba Amr and that the armed defectors went into hiding.
On 24 November, a number of defecting soldiers were killed and four wounded during clashes on the western outskirts of Homs. Later, the military conducted raids against farms further to the west, killing another 15 people.
November–December 2011 escalation and rebel momentum
On 25 November 2011, six elite pilots, one technical officer and three other personnel were killed in Homs in an ambush. The Syrian government vowed to "cut every evil hand" of the attackers as a result. The Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the attack on the air base staff.
In early December, a Sky News correspondent, Stuart Ramsay, was able to smuggle himself and his crew into Homs with the help of the Free Syrian Army. The foreign news crew reported there was heavy fighting in the besieged city each day despite the heavy presence of Syrian army checkpoints and that, after the central square became too dangerous, the FSA had established their own checkpoints aimed at protecting civilians during demonstrations in suburbs and city alleys; video had surfaced that purportedly showed defectors and rebels in control of Baba Amr again, with a checkpoint at the entrance to check for "shabiha infiltrators", a reference to pro-government militiamen. According to Ramsay's account, Homs was by now undoubtedly a war zone which had already entered into a state of full-scale civil war.
On 4 December, heavy fighting raged during which at least five FSA insurgents were killed and one wounded. Around 5 December 61 people were reported to be dead, 34 Sunnis and 27 Alawites. The British-based, pro-opposition conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said an activist on the ground reported seeing "the bodies of 34 civilians, in a square in the pro-regime neighbourhood of Al-Zahra, who had been abducted by the shabiha [pro-government militia] on Monday", according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The civilians, the group said, had been seized from several "anti-regime neighbourhoods" in Homs, probably meaning Baba Amr. The SOHR also reported the "shabiha" abducted a bus driver and his 13 passengers in Homs Governorate on the same day. Both government and opposition forces blamed each other for the civilian killings, but both sides stated that they themselves had enough motive for the killings of the Sunnis and the Alawites, showing the beginning of possible sectarian violence in the conflict.
On 8 December, a pipeline carrying oil from the east of the country to a refinery in Homs was blown up, an activist group said. The group said flames could be seen at the site of the explosion; online video footage of the purported blast site showed black clouds of smoke rising above a built-up area. One Army tank was destroyed and seen burning on a city street.
On 9 December, fears of a massacre by government forces were building, due to a build up of troops, shabiha government militia, and checkpoints; "500" tanks were claimed to have been seen on the outskirts of the city.
On 18 December, six soldiers, including an officer, were killed in fierce clashes between regular army units and defectors near the provincial town of al-Qusayr that also left one civilian dead. According to the SOHR, "Three armoured vehicles were destroyed and those inside were wounded and killed".
In mid-December, a Der Spiegel crew managed to smuggle themselves into Homs where they observed the FSA-controlled Baba Amr district, noting the rebel checkpoints erected at the edge of the district. According to a local FSA commander, shabiha and army snipers were positioned in approximately 200 places in Homs and were shooting on everything that moved in designated zones such as Cairo street, which runs through the center of the city. Reportedly, the FSA did not have the strength to repel a potential all-out Syrian Army assault on Baba Amr, instead planning to retreat and wait until the bulk of government forces withdrew from the district post-capture, as they did in October.
On 24 December, thousands of troops entered the city with around 4,000 surrounding the embattled Baba Amr district and digging trenches. The military subsequently assaulted five neighbourhoods and heavy shelling was reported deep into the night. The military continued their shelling until 26 December, killing 33–34 people on the third day of the bombardment.
By the end of 2011, the FSA's Khalid ibn al-Walid Brigade continued to control the Baba Amr neighbourhood.
Arab League mission and deescalation
In early December 2011, the Syrian government accepted an Arab League plan to send observers to monitor the situation on the ground along with agreeing to withdraw army equipment from cities. On 27 December, activists told Al Arabiya that at least 61 civilians had died in the shelling of Homs in recent days but reported a withdrawal of Syrian army tanks and a halt to ongoing military operations in the city. Basil al-Sayed, a citizen journalist who regularly filmed security forces cracking down on anti-government protesters in the Baba Amr neighbourhood, of which he was a resident, had died in a local hospital of gunshot wounds on the same day. He was reportedly shot by security forces. His footage appeared on the sites of loose-knit citizen news organisations. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.
Some 70,000 protesters gathered in central Homs during the official visit of the Arab League observer mission and were later dispersed by tear gas. The head of the Syrian National Council (SNC), Burhan Ghalioun, said that the Syrian government did not permit the Arab observers to tour the streets or to visit Baba Amr neighborhood.
On 28 December, the head of the Arab League observers, Sudanese Lieutenant General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said the situation was calm in Homs and that there were no clashes. Dabi said that they saw some armored vehicles but no tanks and, overall, judged the situation as "reassuring so far". Although, he added that "there were some places where the situation was not good," and called for further inquiry. In contrast, one of the monitors speaking to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity said the situation in the city was "very dangerous" and that it is under constant shelling, and many videos posted online by activists seemed to show the orange-vested monitors come under fire. He said that some areas were under the control of the Free Syrian Army.