Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2023)

As of 2023, active fighting in the conflict between the Syrian government and rebel groups had mostly subsided, but there were occasional flareups in Northwestern Syria. [1] [2] In early 2023, reports indicated that the forces of ISIS in Syria had mostly been defeated, with only a few cells remaining in various remote locations. [3] [4] [5]

As of 2023, Turkey was continuing its support for various militias within Syria, which periodically attempted some operations against Kurdish groups. [6][7][8] One stated goal was to create "safe zones" along Turkey's border with Syria, according to a statement by Turkish President Erdoğan.[9] The operations were generally aimed at the Tal Rifaat and Manbij regions west of the Euphrates and other areas further east. President Erdoğan openly stated his support for the operations, in talks with Moscow in mid-2022.[10]

In early 2023, Turkish-backed militias carried out military attacks against Kurdish militias, using tanks and artillery. [11]

In March 2023, the Syrian government declared that it would not seek any reconciliation with Turkey, unless Turkey withdrew all of its proxy forces from Syria. This statement occurred in response to diplomatic efforts by Russia, which sought to encourage Syria and Turkey to seek reconciliation, and restoration of diplomatic ties. [12]

In late March, Russia announced that it would host a summit which would include deputy foreign ministers from Russia, Syria, Iran, and Turkey. [13] [14]

On 2 January, as part of Israel's continuing strikes against Syrian and Iranian targets, Israeli warplanes conducted several airstrikes on the Damascus International airport, killing 2 Syrian soldiers and temporarily putting the airport out of service.[15]

On 4 January, 5 Manbij Military Council fighters were killed and another was injured by a remnant ISIS landmine whilst driving on a road near the village of Al-Said Ibrahim in the Manbij countryside.[16]

On the same day, an Islamic State fighter was killed in clashes with SDF operatives in the village of Al-Zir, north of Mayadin.[17]

On 7 January, 2 Pro-Assad fighters were killed in 2 separate attacks conducted by ISIS cells in the al-Rasafah and Palmyra deserts.[18]

On 9 January, casualties were inflicted on a Pro-Assad militia near the town of Al-Jalaa in the Deir-ez-Zor countryside, after ISIS militants attacked Syrian military positions in the area. One ISIS militant was killed in the clashes.[18]

On 10 January, joint forces of the US-led coalition and forces of the SDF launched a counter-terror operation in the village of Al-Sabaa wa Arbain where 2 ISIS fighters had barricaded themselves inside a house. One ISIS militant killed himself by detonating a suicide vest and the other was shot dead by the joint forces.[19]

Between 10 and 11 January, as part of the ongoing clashes on the Idlib frontline 12 Syrian soldiers and 3 HTS militants were killed in violent clashes.[20][21]

On 20 January, Syrian Army forces killed 3 ISIS militants including local ISIS leader, Muhammad Ali al-Shaghouri, in a security operation in the town of Muzayrib, Daraa.[22]

On 22 January, at least 16 civilians were killed after a damaged house collapsed in the city of Aleppo.[23]

On 23 January, forces of the Syrian Army's 17th Division found the bodies of 9 dead militiamen of the Afghan Liwa Fatemiyoun militia, that fights for the Syrian government, in the desert near Al-Masrab. The patrol went missing in the area on 18th January. The militiamen had been stripped and slaughtered on the spot, likely by ISIS cells.[24]

On the same day, 3 Syrian soldiers were killed after ISIS operatives, under the cover of fog, attacked a Syrian Army outpost near the Taqba Airbase.[25]

On 25 January, 3 SDF fighters were killed after two ISIS operatives opened fire on an SDF checkpoint in the village of al-Hawaij in the Deir ez-Zor countryside.[25][26]

On 30 January just after midnight, at least 10 people were killed in several airstrikes conducted by unidentified drones in the town of Abu Kamal near the Syria-Iraq border. Reports suggest trucks filled with Iranian weapons were the target of the attack.[27]

On 2 February, Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar announced the defence ministries of Turkey, Syrian and Russia will hold a meeting in Moscow to try and agree to a rapprochement and normalisation of relations between Syria and Turkey.[28]

On 6 February, a magnitude 9 strike-slip earthquake took place along the East Anatolian Fault on the border of Turkey and Syria. The earthquake left tens of thousands dead and many more injured.

On 7 February, at least 20 ISIS fighters escaped a prison in the town of Raju, in the northern Afrin countryside, near Turkey, after the organisation bribed a prison guard.[29]

On 10 February, 2 ISIS operatives, one of them an Iraqi, were killed in a joint Coalition-SDF raid near the town of Al-Suwar in the Deir ez-Zor countryside.[30]

On the evening of 11 February, at least 75 people were abducted by ISIS in the Palmyra desert in the western Homs countryside. At least 12 of the abductees were executed including a Syrian soldier.[30]

On 17 February, at least 68 people, including 7 Syrian soldiers , were killed in an ISIS attack on a large group of truffle farmers in the desert near Al-Sukhnah.[31]

On 19 February, just after midnight, 15 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus.

Later that day, 6 SNA fighters were killed in an ambush by ISIS operatives in the Tuwainan area of the Raqqa countryside.[32]

On 24 February, a senior Iraqi militant of Hurras al-Din and another individual were killed in a Coalition airstrike in the village of Mashhad Ruhin in Idlib.[33]

On 27 February, 10 civilians were killed and 12 others were injured by possible remnant ISIS landmines east of Salamiyah.[33]

On 2 March, 8 civilians were killed and 35 were wounded after a civilian farming truck drove over a suspected ISIS landmine near Kobajjep in the Syrian desert.[34]

On 4 March, in the southern Raqqa countryside, a shepherd was killed and 1,000 sheep were stolen after an ISIS attack.[34]

At midnight on 8 March, 3 people were killed after Israeli warplanes bombed and temporarily shut down Aleppo's airport.[35]

On the same day, at least 7 people were killed in a suspected Israeli drone strike on an alleged weapon factory in Deir ez-Zor city.[36]

On 9 March, amid ongoing insurgent attack in Daraa Governorate, a Syrian Army patrol was ambushed on the Daraa-Damascus highway in southern Syria. 3 Syrian soldiers and an insurgent were killed in the ambush.[37]

On the same day, Syrian forces lost contact with NDF patrol, consisting of 'Al-Bosaraya' tribesmen, in the Jabal Bishri area of the Syrian desert. All 12 militiamen were found dead in the area in the following weeks.[38][39]

On 11 March, ISIS militants attacked a group of truffle farmers in the Khanaser desert south of Aleppo. 3 farmers were executed on the spot by the ISIS attackers whilst another 26 others were abducted.[40]

On 15 March, the war entered its twelfth year. The anniversary was marked by protests in rebel-held areas like Idlib, where protesters vowed to 'continue the revolution against the al-Assad regime.'[41]

On 17 March, 9 'anti-terror' SDF fighters were killed in a double helicopter crash in the Duhok Governorate of Iraq.[42]

On 19 March, Israeli operatives assassinated 31-year-old Ali Ramzi al-Aswad a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member in Damascus.[43]

On 20 March, fighters of Ahrar al-Sharqiyah killed 4 ethnic Kurds in the town of Jindires, northern Syria, after opening fire into a crowd celebrating Newroz.[44]

On the same day, 2 NDF militiamen were killed by a landmine whilst combing the desert near Palmyra for ISIS cells.[45][46]

On 23 March, 19 people, including 16 Iranian-backed militiamen and 3 Syrian soldiers, were killed in a set of American airstrikes in the city of Deir ez-Zor and the towns of Mayadin and Abu Kemal. The airstrikes follow a drone attack on an American base in the al-Hasakha countryside, in which an American contractor was killed and 7 soldiers were injured.[47][48]

On the same day, at least 15 people, including 7 civilians and 8 Syrian soldiers, were captured and executed by having their throats slit after ISIS militants attacked them whilst they were collecting truffle in the Hama desert. At least another 40 people were also reported missing after the attack.[49]

On 26 March, 4 civilians were killed and others were abducted in an ISIS attack on workers in the Shaer gas field area in the Palmyra desert.[50]

On 28 March, 3 civilians were killed in an ISIS attack in the rural area of Al-Salamiyah, east of Hama.[50]

On 30 March, Milad Heydari, an Iranian IRGC adviser was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus.[51]

On the same day, 3 Syrian soldiers were killed in an ambush by insurgents in the town of Al-Shajara, Daraa.[52]

On 31 March, 7 people were killed in smuggling related clashes on the Syrian-Jordanian border in the Jalghim area near Al-Hammad.[53]

On the same day, 2 ISIS fighters were killed by Kurdish security forces in an attempted suicide bombing attack on a military post in Al-Hasakah city.[54]

On 1 April, 2 Syrian soldiers, including a lieutenant, were killed after their vehicle drove over a landmine in the desert south of Deir ez-Zor.[55]

On 3 April, a senior ISIS militant, by the name of Khalid Aydd Ahmad Al Jabouri, was killed in an American airstrike in the al-Hasakah countryside.[56]

On 4 April, 2 civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus.[57]

Between 4 and 6 April, 9 Liwa al-Quds militiamen were killed in attacks by ISIS insurgents in the Homs/Palmyra part Syrian desert[58]

On 9 April, at least 9 civilians were killed after their vehicle hit a landmine in the Deir ez-Zor countryside.[59]

On 10 April, 4 Liwa al Quds militiamen were killed and another was injured after ISIS fighters attacked a Syrian Army checkpoint near Jab Al-Jirrah in the Homs countryside.[60]

On 16 April, at least 36 people, including 17 NDF militiamen, were killed in a massacre by ISIS militants in the eastern Hama countryside. Another 5 civilians were also killed in a separate ISIS attack near the town of Baqrus, in the Deir ez-Zor countryside.[61][62]

Furthermore, 2 Liwa al-Quds militiamen, including a lieutenant, were killed and another 3 were injured in an ISIS attack near the village of Arak in the Palmyra desert.[60]

On 17 April, a senior ISIS militant by the name of Abd-al-Hadi Mahmud al-Haji Ali and 2 other ISIS militants were killed in an American helicopter raid in the village of Al-Suweidah, about 9 km south of the Syrian-Turkish border.[60]

On 24 April, 3 militiamen working as part of the IRGC were killed after ISIS militants, on a motorcycle, opened fire on the group in the eastern Deir ez-Zor countryside.[63]

On 27 April, a commander of the Deir ez-Zor Military Council was assassinated by suspected ISIS operatives in the village of Al-Busayrah.[63]

On 28 April, 2 SDF fighters were killed and 3 others were wounded by an IED explosion on the road between Raqqa and Al-Hazimah village in the Raqqa countryside.[63]

The SOHR reported that 407 people were killed in Syria during the month, making April 2023 the deadliest month since January 2022.[64]

On 1 May, at least 13 people, including 8 Pro-Assad militiamen and 2 civilians, were killed in an ISIS ambush in the desert near Al-Salihiyah, Deir ez-Zor.[65]

On 2 May, at least 9 Pro-Assad soldiers and militiamen were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Syrian facilities in the al-Nayrab military airport in Aleppo.[66][67]

In the early hours of 8 May, Jordanian warplanes launched its first ever airstrikes against targets linked to the Assad regime, on a house in the village of Shuab, As-Suwayda. The airstrike targeted a well known drug dealer by the name of Merhi Ramthan. Merhi, his wife and six children were killed in the airstrike. Another set of strikes bombed a major drug factory operated by Iran-backed militant groups in Daraa governorate.[68]

On 7 May, the Arab League agreed to re-admit Syria into the league. The rapprochement occurred amid a diplomatic push by the Assad government to normalize relations with regional governments that began in February 2023.[69] President Al-Assad was expected to attend the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19.[70]