On November 16, 1989, FMLN guerillas launched an offensive to take control of San Salvador and other major cities. Government forces began with an aerial campaign of indiscriminately rocketing and straffing the capital's poor barrios where the guerillas were positioned. In the first few days of fighting, scores of civilians were killed and wounded as they fled their homes in search of safety. The civilian toll was massive. Government and guerilla forces also lost large numbers of combatants in the following three weeks of urban fighting.

Peace accords were finally signed in January 1992, ending 12 years of civil war in which 70,000 died.