Large pro-government and anti-government protests took place in the suburbs and center of Damascus, with the situation escalating when members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) started attacking military targets in November.

On 27 January 2012, the Syrian Army launched a military operation which retook the Damascus suburbs and the town of Zabadani with the offensive ending on 11 February.

[13] On 16 November 2011, according to opposition sources, Syrian army deserters attacked a military intelligence office in Harasta, a suburb of the capital Damascus, killing six soldiers and wounding more than 20.

[21] In December 2011, Al Jazeera published an article stating that protesters in the suburbs of Damascus gathered every evening to make their support for the Free Syrian Army known.

[26] On 23 December 2011, Syrian state TV claimed that two explosions at security bases in Damascus were caused by suicide bombers; a number of military personnel and civilians were killed.

[29] On 29 December 2011, Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb called Douma, close to a municipal building that members of the Arab League monitoring mission were believed to be visiting.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the one-man British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said about 20,000 people were protesting outside the Grand Mosque in Douma when troops opened fire.

[32] On 12 January 2012, state TV reported that an army bus was attacked in the area of the Damascus countryside with another roadside bomb and gunfire, killing four soldiers and wounding eight.

[43] However, they met fierce resistance, and six government soldiers, including two officers, were killed and six wounded in the opposition-controlled suburb of Sahnaya when their bus was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb.

[47] Other Damascus suburbs that have come under fire from heavy artillery and mortar rounds from government forces include Douma, Saaba, Arbin and Hamuriyeh, activists said.

"The more the regime uses the army, the more soldiers defect," Ahmed al-Khatib, a local rebel council member on the Damascus outskirts, told the AFP news agency.

A spokesperson for the rebel FSA, which at the time, had 40,000 men and whose leadership was in Turkey, said that the fighting came a day after "a large wave of defections," with 50 officers and soldiers turning their back on Assad.

[49] After two days of clashes, oppositions and FSA sources confirmed that the Syrian army regained control of some of the eastern suburbs of Damascus from the rebels and started to make house-to-house checks and arrests.

[4] During the fighting in Wadi Barada, located north-west of Damascus in the Rif Damashk governorate, the Local Committee of Coordination initially reported that 12 people, including six FSA fighters, were killed.

The opposition activist group also wrongly stated that the government poisoned the water supply of Wadi Barada; however, there was no independent confirmation and no other media reported the claim.

[4] Saqba, a working-class eastern suburb city of Damascus, had amidst peaceful anti-government demonstrations shortly fallen into control of a dozen armed and masked fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

[64] A Lebanese source close to the Syrian government said that the offensive had the goal of cleansing all the areas near the capital from rebels and setting up a security zone.

Members of the Free Syrian Army fought for four hours with armoured backed troops who entered the al-Qaboun neighbourhood in the north of the capital according to witnesses; it was not immediately known how many people were killed but several FSA fighters were wounded.

[73] On 14 February, the Syrian press agency stated that the security forces discovered an insurgent hiding place and confiscated weapons, bomb-making kits and military suits.

[83][84] On 3 March 2012, the head of the Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, told al-Jazeera that FSA members had taken control of arms depots in Reef Damascus.

According to the Sunday Times, the fighting ended with a senior Sunni general, who had made it clear that he wished to defect to the FSA, and his family being escorted from their home under the protection of the rebels.

Activists reported that explosions and small arms fire could be heard across a large part of Damascus province and in districts of the city itself, as anti-government protests were staged in Douma and Artuz close to the capital.

Following the collapse of the cease-fire due to continued attacks by independent opposition rebel groups, the area became the scene of the Summer 2012 Damascus clashes.

[115] The director of a military hospital told Sky News that 10 to 15 dead soldiers were arriving every day and the same number were being treated for injuries sustained in the fighting.

[123] On 9 June 2012, in Damascus, residents spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar al Assad's government began 15 months ago.

[127] On 16 June 2012, three opposition fighters were allegedly killed in Douma and a large number of others arrested when authorities raided their hideouts, SANA, state TV media, reported.

[152] On 11 July 2012, there was heavy fighting in the Damascus neighbourhood of Zabdin, where members of the FSA attacked a missile base, prompting the defection of at least 27 soldiers there.

[155][156] On 16 July 2012, for a second day, heavy clashes in the southern Midan and Tadhamon districts of Damascus raged[157] with the military managing to surround the rebel forces in the area and sending tanks and other armored vehicles into the neighborhoods.

He also said the FSA didn't start the battle, in line with earlier reports that the military made a preemptive strike on the opposition forces after learning of their plan for the attack on the capital.

Four were killed: Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Head of Armed Forces Assef Shawkat, General Hasan Turkmani and National Security Chief Hisham Ikhtiyar.