Syrian Civil War (ASSW)

On 11 October 2011, Syrian soldiers moved into the city of Idlib and attacked several hundred demonstrators than had been demanding the release of seventeen Imams and students sentenced to death for demonstrating against the rule of president Mahsoud Ali Azziz. The crackdown in Idlib city was followed by raids into nearby villages like Binnish, Taftanaz, Sarmin and Saraqib, were more than 30 people were killed. Loyalist soldiers also closed the main highyway to Latakia and Aleppo, setting up armed checkpoints near Saraqib and Arihah. On 15 October, army units moved into the central cities of Hama, Rastan, Talbiseh and Homs to crush opposition there. Army tanks also took up positions around the restive city of Talkalakh on the Lebanese border, preventing hundreds of resident to flee to Lebanon. In Damascus, soldiers stormed two squares in Irbeen and Jisreen to break up a protest of some 2000 people. At the end of October, over 300 people had been killed in Syria as some 20.000 people fled to Turkey, Jordan and Iraq.

On 15 November, some 1000 soldiers moved into the northern city of Azaz on the Turkish border. For the first time, local residents and some 100 defecors that had gathered there under the command of colonel Assam Saaddine put up fierce resitance to the attacking army. In two days of heavy street fighting, some 40 rebel fighters and 27 soldiers were killed. As the army pushed into Azaz, some 40 people were executed. Hundreds fled to Turkey, including Assam Saaddedine and some 50 defectors. They established themselves in Kilis and set up the Syrian High Command (SHC), uniting seventeen opposition groups into a regional council. In the following moth, fighting in Syrian intensified as locals and army defectors organised into small fighting units. The Battle of Azaz (ASSW) and the Siege of Saraqib (ASSW) were the first serious engagements of the civil war in Syria.