France Press

DAMASCUS: Key dates in the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, which entered its 18th month Wednesday:
 
MARCH 2011
 
- 15: First protests after calls on Facebook for a "Day of Dignity."
 
- 18-27: Crackdowns in Damascus, Banias and Daraa, cradle of the uprising, where 100 are reportedly killed on the 23rd.
 
APRIL
 
- 25-26: Protests spread and strengthen, with calls for the regime's fall.
 
AUGUST
 
- 18: US President Barack Obama and his allies urge Assad to quit. Western and Arab states later impose sanctions on his regime.
 
OCTOBER
 
- 2: Creation of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC).
 
NOVEMBER
 
- 16: The Free Syrian Army (FSA), set up in Turkey by a deserter from Assad's army, claims an attack on a Damascus military base.
 
MARCH, 2012
 
- 21: The UN Security Council demands that Syria implement a peace plan drawn up by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan calling for a ceasefire and democratic transition.
 
APRIL
 
- 12: The UN-backed ceasefire, which the regime accepted, formally begins, but violence continues.
 
- 14 and 21: Security Council Resolution 2042 -- the first adopted on the crisis -- calls for unarmed observers in Syria.
 
MAY
 
- 25: At least 108 people, including 49 children and 34 women, killed in Houla in Homs province. Rebels and regime blame each other for the massacre. The Security Council condemns Damascus.
 
JUNE
 
- 16: UN observer head General Robert Mood suspends the work of his mission because of escalating violence, although the monitors remain in Syria.
 
JULY
 
- 3: The US-based Human Rights Watch says Syria is holding tens of thousands of detainees in a "torture archipelago."
 
- 6: Munaf Tlass, a high-profile general close to Assad, defects.
 
- 23: Regime forces, boosted by elite troops, reclaim most of the capital after days of unprecedented clashes.
 
- 18: Four top security officials, including Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, are killed in a Damascus attack.
 
- 19: Russia and China veto for the third time a UN Security Council resolution that would threaten sanctions against Assad.
 
- 28: The military launches a dawn assault on Syria's economic capital Aleppo, where clashes have been taking place since the 20th, using helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks as well as ground troops.
 
AUGUST
 
- 2: Annan resigns after five months of fruitless peace efforts.
 
- 13: Rebels claim they downed a fighter jet.
 
- 14: More than 23,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
 
- Former prime minister Riad Hijab, who defected on August 5, says that the regime is collapsing. Government forces concentrate their operations on the two main cities Damascus and Aleppo.
 
- 15: A bomb explodes in central Damascus near the hotel used by the UN observer mission in Syria, wounding three people.