Syrian government victory[2][3][4][5][6][7] 2,500–5,000 militants[12][13](start of the battle) 92–97 soldiers and policemen killed[15] 130 soldiers and policemen wounded[16][17] 3 tanks[18] and 1 armored car[19] destroyed 1 armored car captured [20] 3 Mil Mi-8 helicopters shot down[21][22] Foreign intervention in behalf of Syrian rebels U.S.-led intervention against ISIL The Battle of Damascus (Arabic: معركة دمشق), also known as Operation Damascus Volcano (Arabic: عملية بركان دمشق), started on 15 July 2012 during the Syrian civil war.

[28] On 16 July, for a second day, heavy clashes in the southern Midan and Tadhamon districts of Damascus raged[29] with the military managing to surround the rebel forces in the area and sending tanks and other armored vehicles into the neighbourhoods.

[35] The state-run news agency reported that rebel forces had retreated from the Nahr Aisha district to Midan, where fighting was continuing.

A deputy police chief, Brigadier General Issa Duba, was said to have died from wounds sustained during the clashes, according to a pro-Assad website.

[17] The FSA stated they destroyed one armored vehicle and captured another and that, among the members of the Syrian military who were killed, were several rooftop snipers.

He also said the FSA didn't start the battle, which would be 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.

[21] RT reporter Maria Finoshina stated that fighting was nowhere near the level she experienced during the government assault on the suburb of Douma the previous week.

[8] Also killed were Assef Shawkat, Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and deputy defense minister,[43] the assistant to the vice president general Hassan Turkomani[44][45] and Hafez Makhlouf, head of investigations at the Syrian Intelligence Agency.

Reuters reported that the Syrian Army escalated its response to the bombing by firing on suburbs from artillery batteries located on a mountain overlooking Damascus.

One military source told that the army exercised restraint in its response in Damascus but that after the bombing, they would use all their weapons to finish the rebels.

[61] Afterwards, opposition groups accused the Syrian army in massacring 100 civilians that had been shot and killed by security forces gunfire during a funeral procession in al-Sayida Zainab on the outskirts of Damascus.

[72][73][74] Rebel fighters stormed and burned the Sa'iqa military camp, which was being used as a training facility, in the Basateen al-Mezzeh district in central Damascus according to activists.

[75] At the end of 20 July, Damascus center and areas beyond were reported to be under firm government control with some fighting continuing only in the outskirts.

[77] On 21 July, a security source told AFP that the Army took control of Tadamon, Qaboun and Barzeh, in addition to Midan, the previous day, but that fighting was still ongoing in the Jobar, Kfar Sousa and Mazeeh quarters.

[88][89] The Fourth division also routed the rebels out of Mezzeh[90] after 1,000 troops entered the district backed up by armoured vehicles, tanks and bulldozers.

[93] By the end of the day, activists confirmed that Barzeh was also overrun by government troops and that at least five young men, possibly rebels, were summarily executed.

[96] Syrian State media showed graphic images of foreign Arab fighters killed in Qaboun, including two Egyptians and three Jordanians, identified by their identity papers.

[98] Meanwhile, the Israeli military confirmed that president Assad, along with his family, was still in the capital, contradicting earlier reports that they left the city for Latakia.

Alex Thompson stated that in his journey to Midan terrified locals told him that "They used cannons, mortar, machine guns, tanks, they used helicopters—they use everything against us."

[106] The opposition reported that the Syrian Army attacked the last rebel pockets in the Damascus districts of Qaddam and al Hajar-Aswad.

[107] In other parts of the city, journalist Alex Thompson described that the battle as a victory for the Syrian Army, and a morale boost for the regime.

[109] The rebel-held town of Al-Tal, on the outskirts of Damascus, was heavily bombarded on 25 July by the 216th Mechanized Battalion of the Syrian Army.

Rebel remnants, that did not pull back from Damascus with the other opposition forces, converged on the Tadamon district, where they made the area their final stronghold.

[117][118][119] On 1 August, at the same time as the Tadamon operation started, the military raided the town of Jdaidet Artuz, southwest of Damascus, rounding up around 100 people suspected of being rebel sympathisers or opposition activists.

[120][121] Syrian state media reported that the armed group located in the city was defeated, with dozens of insurgents killed, and that most of the others surrendered later.

[122] On 4 August, the Tadamon district was cleared of insurgents and the general who led the operation, which involved special forces, announced during a press tour of the quarter that the whole of Damascus had been secured and was under the full control of the Syrian Army.

[128] On 15 August, the Free Syrian Army claimed it was behind a bomb attack on a military base near the UN hotel in central Damascus.

During the operation, the Army captured the rebel-held towns of Al-Tall, Mouadamiya and Daraya,[133][134][135] and the southern Damascus districts of Kfar Souseh and Nahr Aisha.

On 26 September, Iranian state-sponsored Press TV correspondent Maya Nasser was shot and killed by a sniper while reporting live.

Soleimani reportedly coordinated the war from a base in Damascus, as the rebels came close to government headquarters by digging underground tunnels, according to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.