10 Years of the Civil War in Syria.

The Syrian conflict started 10 years ago in March 2011. Before the conflict began many Syrians were not happy with rising unemployment, corruption, and a lack of political freedom under president Bashar al-Assad who had succeeded his father.

Inspired by the uprisings in neighboring countries against repressive rulers; the pro-democracy demonstrations started in the city of Deraa. The Syrian government was not intimidated by the demonstrations and decided to crack down on the protesters. They used deadly force on the protesters who were demanding the resignation of the president. The protests had now spread nationwide.

Everything turned violent and the Assad regime gunned down persons who asked for a peaceful transition to democracy. Gulf countries poured in lots of cash to support the opposition units fighting for their cause. Assad let the former Al Qaeda members and other criminals out of jail. The US-trained some moderate rebels; who went on to join the ranks of extremist groups. The peaceful uprising against the president of Syria had now turned into a full-scale civil war.

The unrest spread further and the crackdown intensified. The opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and then to fight against the security forces. President Assad vowed to crush the uprising stating that it was foreign-backed terrorism.

There were now hundreds of rebel groups and the conflict was no longer between Mr. Assad and the rebels. Foreign powers were now taking sides sending money, weaponry, and fighters, and jihadist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda got involved. This became a matter of concern for the International community which saw this as a great threat.

The countries involved

The main supporters of the Assad regime have been Russia and Iran; the Western powers, Turkey and the Gulf Arab states are supporting the opposition over the past 10 years.

Russia

Since the 1950s Soviet Union and later Russia has been a staunch ally of Syria supplying them with the latest “Made in Russia’ weapons. The ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin who had come to power and Assad who had assumed leadership after the death of his father had been growing in the mid-2000s.

Russia had military bases in Syria before the conflict started and launched an air attack in favor of Mr. Assad in 2015 which turned the war in favor of the government. Russia claims that its strikes only target the terrorists, but many activists say that they regularly kill the rebel and the civilians.

Iran

Iran initially supported the uprising in the Middle East, calling them Islamic awakenings where the Western-allied Arab autocracies like Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen were involved. But in Syria, Tehran offered support to the Assad regime and called the Syrian opposition terrorists, that were supported by Israel and United States.

It deployed hundreds of troops and spent billions of dollars to help Mr. Assad. Thousands of Shia-armed men trained by Iran fought alongside the Syrian army.

Western countries

Western countries at first anticipated that the Syrian people might overthrow the government as had been witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt. But when that did not happen the US, UK and France provided support to the moderate rebel groups. The US-led global coalition carried out airstrikes and deployed Special Forces in Syria since 2014, to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian democratic force which captured territory once held by the IS militants in the northeast.

Turkey

Turkey is a major supporter of the opposition forces and as Turkey took control of northern Syria, they turned their focus to fight the Kurdish fighters whom Turkey considers as terrorists. In the past few years Russia on the regime side, and Turkey on the opposition side have hired thousands of Syrians as mercenaries to fight in other conflicts like Libya and Azerbaijan.

Turkish troops and rebels have seized vast stretches of territory along Syria’s northern border and intervened to stop the assault by the government on the opposition stronghold of Idlib.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is keen to counter Iranian influence and financed the rebels at the start of the war. Qatar too wants the same.

Israel

Israel is concerned about the Iranian military involvement and supply of weapons to Hezbollah and other Shia militias, so it has conducted air raids many times to push them back.

How many people have died?

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group with networking sources on the ground has reported the deaths of 3.9 Lakh people as of December 2020 with 1.17 lakh being civilians.

This did not include 2.05 lakh people who were missing and presumed dead including 88,000 civilians who are believed to have died of torture in the government-run prisons. More than 2.1 million civilians have suffered injuries or permanent disabilities due to the conflict and almost 12,000 children have been killed or wounded.

More than half of Syria’s pre-war population of 22 million people has fled their homes. Around 6.7 million people are internally displaced; many living in refugee camps while 5.6 million are living as refugees abroad. The neighboring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey are having most of the people living abroad.

America’s retreat from the Middle East is responsible for Assad’s survival with the support of Russia. When US President Obama took over, he had war involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq; therefore he decided not to enter any new conflicts.

In August 2012, Obama said that if Syria used chemical weapons it would force the US military to intervene. But when Assad was accused of using chemical weapons in August 2013, Obama did not intervene and worked out a deal with Putin under which Russia was to ensure the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.

President Trump ordered a few airstrikes on Syrian targets in 2018 when the Syrian government was accused of using chemical weapons.

Joe Biden is as disinterested in Syria as his predecessors. His concern is on reviving the US economy. It has become clear that China and not the Middle East will occupy a priority in foreign affairs. Supporters of Assad like Russia and the United Arab Emirates hope that Biden will repeal sectorial sanctions against Syria for rebuilding the country.

After a decade of war, it is clear that the economic crisis is at its worst and large parts of the country have been destroyed and the country is split. The Syrian government has reclaimed large parts of the country held by the rebels but the northwest remains under the control of Islamist rebels and the northeast is under America’s allies; the Syrian Democratic forces.

Other problems facing Syria

The Assad regime does not meet the basic needs of the people in the region that it controls. It has been unable to manage the economy and can’t fight the bread and fuel crisis that has deepened in recent months. Economic sanctions by the US and Europe have caused the Syrian Lira to suffer large losses.

According to a report from the Syrian Network of Human Rights, the Assad regime tortured and killed 14,315 people, and healthcare facilities were targeted by parties 863 times during the civil war and at least 859 healthcare workers were killed.

After a decade of conflict, Syria remains the world’s largest refugee crisis. In the last few months’ heavy rains and flooding in Syria’s northwest have destroyed tents, disrupted food supplies, and left thousands of people homeless. Healthcare centers, hospitals, schools, utilities, and water and sanitation systems are damaged. Historic landmarks and marketplaces have been reduced to rubble.

Ten years of the war has demonstrated that while the countries involved have fought for gaining influence, the people of Syria have lost on all sides from the war be it economically or with the loss of their lives. People living in Syria want the peace to return and those that have moved to other countries are trying to come to terms with the situation.