The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2012, during which time the spate of protests that began in January 2011 lasted into another calendar year. An Arab League monitoring mission ended in failure as Syrian troops and anti-government militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged opposition strongholds. A United Nations-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting.
January 2012
1 January
Multiple reports on Twitter claimed that Syrians in several restive neighborhoods and cities, including al-Midan in central Damascus, Baba Amr in Homs, and Idlib city, were marching in New Year's Day protests against the government in the early morning, shortly after midnight. The opposition Local Co-ordinating Committees announced it had confirmed 5,862 deaths in the Syrian uprising during 2011, including 287 prisoners allegedly tortured to death. The LCC also announced the first confirmed death from the uprising in 2012, a wounded person who died due to insufficient blood plasma supply at a hospital. That death toll rose to eight, several of them fatalities from Syrian security forces firing on protesters in the Damascene suburb of Daria, the LCC reported near the end of the day.
Neoconservative commentator Nick Cohen, writing for the British newspaper The Guardian, said that the Western world should intervene militarily to oust President Bashar al-Assad and stop the Syrian Army from committing further human rights violations. The editorial echoed opposition claims that interrogators in Aleppo had invented a new type of torture wherein detainees are forced to stand on a heated metal plate until they confess or else collapse from extensive damage to their feet.
The Arab Parliament, a consultative pan-Arab body created by the Arab League, called for the withdrawal of the supranational organization's observers from Syria. Ali El-Salem El-Dekbas, the speaker of the parliament, said the observers were doing no good and it was a disgrace to keep them in Syria with the crackdown ongoing. "The mission of the Arab League team has missed its aim of stopping the killing of children and ensuring the withdrawal of troops from the Syrian streets, giving the Syrian regime a cover to commit inhumane acts under the noses of the Arab League observers", Dekbas said in a statement.
Assad insider and Syrian security officer Colonel Hafez Makhlouf's plans to visit Switzerland were waylaid when the Swiss Federal Tribunal ruled that Makhlouf should not be granted a visa. Makhlouf had reportedly planned to consult with an attorney in Switzerland on a bid to overturn international sanctions freezing his assets and restricting his travel.
2 January
Nabil Elaraby, secretary-general of the Arab League, defended the observer mission after the Arab Parliament's call for its withdrawal. Elaraby claimed that, as a result of the monitors' presence placing pressure on the Syrian government to comply with the Arab peace initiative, Syrian Army (SA) tanks had been withdrawn from cities, almost 3,500 detainees had been released, and humanitarian aid had been delivered to formerly besieged cities. However, contradicting mission leader General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi's remarks on Newshour two days earlier, Elaraby acknowledged snipers remained in several areas and shooting was still ongoing, though it was hard for monitors to tell who was shooting and at whom. Opposition activists contested Elaraby's remarks, telling the Los Angeles Times that many tanks had not withdrawn and were being hidden within striking distance of city centers in restive areas. Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset that he judged Assad's remaining time in power could be measured in weeks.
The opposition Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) said four were killed in Syria by security forces as of 9 am local time. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the state-run media outlet in Syria, said a school worker was killed by gunmen holding her hostage and a journalist died of wounds suffered in a shooting in Daraya, a Damascus suburb, some days earlier.