Syria’s Civil War

It’s the land where the Arab Spring collided with a dictatorship determined to stay in power. For decades, Syria’s leaders imposed stability on the country’s mix of religious and ethnic groups. Then civil war erupted in 2011. Secular Syrians, homegrown Islamist radicals and foreign Sunni jihadists have battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and — at times — each other. The conflict fed the growth of the al-Qaeda spinoff Islamic State, which used the turmoil to conquer territory in Syria and Iraq. In its eighth year, the war is entering what could be its final phase, with Assad and his backers — Russia, Iran and the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah — prevailing. It’s a costly victory: an estimated 511,000 people — about 1 in 43 citizens — have been killed, with much of the country’s roads, factories, hospitals, schools and homes destroyed.

Syrian and Russian forces are keeping up bombardments to push the rebels from their last few strongholds, as the scramble begins for who might hold what territory in the post-war era. It was Russia’s bombing campaign, which began in 2015, that turned the course of the war. Both Russia and the U.S. were drawn deeper into the conflict by Islamic State’s initial gains in the country and its terrorist attacks around the world. President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. forces in the country. Different Syrian rebel groups were backed by foreign powers including Saudi Arabia and the U.S., which in mid-2017 ended its covert program to train and arm moderate groups. The U.S. also armed Kurdish fighters in Syria to combat Islamic State, whose remaining fighters were pushed into ever-smaller areas. Syria’s war has produced the largest forced displacement of people since World War II. The war has uprooted about half the country’s prewar population of 22 million, creating more than 5 million refugees. Of those who remain, an estimated 60 percent live in extreme poverty, with the economy shrinking to a quarter of its size before the war.