Talk:Rif Dimashq offensive (November 2012–February 2013)

Second "battle"?

Is this really a "battle"? The rebels don't seem to be launching another offensive. The wave of bombings and assassinations is more like guerrilla style hit-and-run attacks. Maybe change the title to "Damascus clashes (November 2012)" instead? Another issue is that most of the fighting in the area is occurring in the suburbs. We could merge this article with "Rif Dimashq offensive" and then change that article's title to maybe "2012 Rif Dimashq clashes"? What do you guys think?-- FutureTrillionaire (talk) 20:49, 8 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am indifferent, but perhaps you answer lies in this paragrah

"That same day, rebels launched a large operation in Central Damascus. Firing mortars into the predominantley Alawite Mezzah 86 district near the Presidential Palace. Hitting the Prime Ministers offices, and Mezzah's military airport, killing 3 civilians and injuring 12 others. A spokesperson for the Revolutionary Council in Damascus, Susan Ahmed hailed the operation as "a countdown", and also stated "It seems something serious is going on there now and things are going out of control. The regime cannot control Damascus anymore". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20238859"

Sopher99 (talk) 20:58, 8 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I see this as simple content forking. The information in this article talks about mostly the operations in the suburbs and the towns on the outskirts that are in Rif Dimashq province. We already have an article on the current fighting there and it's called Rif Dimashq offensive. Like Future says, just merge the content into Rif Dimashq offensive and redirect this page to there. As for the title, it most certainly is not a Battle for the capital so the title is inapropriate. Like Future says, it's standard rebel hit-and-run attacks into some central areas of the capital in an attempt to relieve the pressure of the military offensive on the outskirts. They are not trying to capture and hold areas in the capital like they tried back in July. End of story. EkoGraf (talk) 22:27, 8 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with sopher99,and by the way there is heavy clashs in damascus and the FSA controls tadamon neighborhood which is in the heart of the capital,so battle is the best word to descibe what is happening now,it is no longer a gurilla hit and run fighting it is an an attack ,but look it is on levels,no directly in an fullout attack.Alhanuty (talk) 20:39, 9 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you do not have sources which explicitly say that the rebels are conducting a battle for control of Damascus, which they did do back in July, than anything else is your personal opinion which Wikipedia can't take into account. Furthermore, there have been sources which explicitly say that what is happening at the moment in the central parts of Damascus is a rebel attempt, by their own admission, to relieve the pressure of the military offensive on the rural outskirts for which we already have an article Rif Dimashq offensive. I can provide you with these sources. Thus what is happening now in the central parts of Damascus is directly linked to that. In any case, your opinion that there is a battle for Damascus at the moment is unsourced and while some of the fighting you have written on in the article IS happening in the central parts of Damascus, most of it is happening in the rural towns on the outskirts, which is already covered in the Rif Dimashq article and is thus in violation of Wikipedia policy on content forking. Tomorrow I will move all of your info into a separate section of the Rif Dimashq offensive. Except you, none of the other editors have tried to argue for keeping the article. Future and I have pointed out to you the dubiousness of the article and Sopher has stated he is indifferent. EkoGraf (talk) 02:29, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

the FSA controls the tadamon district in damascus city,and there is continueing fight in damascus.Alhanuty (talk) 03:35, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What is happening in damascus is very different from what is happening in rif dimashq ,what is happening in damascus needs an article for its own not to be put in rif dimashq offensive,the rif dimashq article was for the regime's offensive in rif dimashq,what is happening in damascus,even in rif dimashq is an attack by the fsa to take control over the areas. Alhanuty (talk) 03:43, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A lot of the stuff in here belongs to the Damascus countryside battles. Other than that the rebels never captured Douma and Harasta. They already ahd control of it and before this attack by them they were losing Harasta.

For the battles in the city, I think it's better to wait until the situation becomes more clear. How many times have the rebels infiltrated Tadamon and Hajar Al-Aswad? How many times have soldiers killed or scared away the rebels? It's better to wait for the situation to clear up and see if this was an attack to divert attention away from the Eastern Ghouta region (where they are losing) or a real battle aimed at capturing Yarmouk and maybe the city. Oh and there really shouldn't be much stock put on what the opposition say without corroborating evidence. They have a history of exaggerating and lying with a bad habit of going silent when things turn bad for them. 62.31.145.100 (talk) 04:00, 10 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned references in Battle of Damascus (November 2012)

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Battle of Damascus (November 2012)'s orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "nytimes1":

From Siege of Hama (2011): Bakri, Nada; Gladstone, Rick (3 August 2011). "Syria Sends In Tanks to Storm Center of Rebellious City". New York Times.
From 2011–2012 Damascus clashes: "Denial Is Slipping Away as War Arrives in Damascus". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-20.Template:Login required

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 02:11, 9 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]