Timeline: Crackdown on protests in Syria

(Reuters) - Following is a timeline of events in Syria since protests began:

March 16, 2011 - Security forces break up a gathering of 150 protesters in Marjeh Square in Damascus who were holding pictures of imprisoned relatives.

March 29 - Government resigns.

April 3 - President Bashar al-Assad asks Adel Safar, a former agriculture minister, to form a new government.

April 19 - Government passes bill lifting emergency rule.

April 22 - Security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad kill at least 100 protesters, a rights group says.

May 23 - European Union imposes sanctions on Assad and nine other senior members of the government.

June 27 - Syrian intellectuals call for sweeping political change at a rare conference allowed by the authorities.

July 8 - Thousands rally in Hama calling for Assad to go; U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier visit the city to show support for protesters.

July 31 - Syrian tanks storm Hama, residents say, after besieging it for nearly a month. At least 80 people are killed.

August 7 - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah recalls his ambassador from Syria. Kuwait recalls its envoy the next day.

September 2 - The European Union imposes a ban on purchases of Syrian oil and warns of further steps unless crackdown ends.

September 15 - Syrian opposition activists announce members of a Syrian National Council to provide an alternative to government.

October 4 - Russia and China veto a European-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria.

November 2 - Syria agrees in principle to an Arab League plan to withdraw its army from cities and hold talks. The next day activists say security forces kill 11 people in Homs.

November 12 - The Arab League suspends Syria.

November 16 - Army defectors attack an Air Force Intelligence complex on the edge of Damascus. The Free Syrian Army, set up by deserters, is led by Colonel Riad al-Asaad, based in Turkey.

November 27 - Arab states vote to impose economic sanctions.

November 30 - Turkey says it has suspended all financial credit dealings with Syria and frozen Syrian government assets.

December 5 - Syria says it has conditionally approved an Arab League peace plan. Syria demands the annulment of sanctions plus reinstatement in the regional bloc.

December 7 - Assad denies ordering his troops to kill peaceful demonstrators, telling the U.S. television channel ABC that only a "crazy" leader kills his own people.

December 12 - Syria holds local elections as part of what it says is a reform process. Critics say the vote is irrelevant.

December 13 - U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay reports the death toll from nine months of unrest has risen to more than 5,000.

December 15 - Russia offers the U.N. Security Council a new, stronger draft resolution on violence in Syria. Western envoys say the Russian text needs toughening up and can negotiate.

December 19 - Syria signs the Arab League peace plan, agreeing to let observers into the country.

-- The U.N. General Assembly condemns Syria for its crackdown and human rights abuses, in a vote that highlights Damascus' growing isolation at the world body.

December 21 - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 111 people are killed on December 20, as well as over 100 casualties among army deserters in Idlib province.

December 22 - The British-based Avaaz rights group says it has collected evidence of more than 6,237 deaths of civilians and security forces, 617 of them under torture.

- Syria announces that more than 2,000 of its security forces have been killed in the unrest.

December 23 - Twin suicide bombs aimed at two security buildings strike Damascus, killing 44. Syria said al Qaeda terrorists were behind the attacks.

- Opposition members say they suspect the Assad government carried out the bombings itself, to prove to the world it is facing a ruthless insurgency by armed Islamic fundamentalists.

December 27 - At least 20,000 protesters gather in Homs as Arab League peace monitors say they saw "nothing frightening" in an initial visit to Homs, but that a long investigation is needed.

December 28 - Syrians in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs refuse to meet Arab League monitors in the presence of a Syrian army officer, prompting the observers to leave, activists say.

- State TV says 755 people, detained over unrest, now free.

December 30 - Hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the streets to demonstrate against Assad and at least 10 people are killed, activists say.

-- Some 250,000 gather after Friday's Muslim prayer in the northern province of Idlib and activists say the army has put its heavy weapons out of sight in the city of Idlib.

-- The Free Syrian Army commander Riad al-Assad, has ordered his fighters to stop offensive operations pending a meeting with Arab League monitors.

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)