War Update: Portal

Intro

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba'ath Party government and those seeking to oust it. The conflict began on 15 March 2011, with demonstrations by protesters demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, and the relinquishment of power by the Ba'ath Party, which has ruled Syria since 1971.

In April 2011, the Syrian Army was deployed to quell the demonstrations, but within a few weeks protests had broken out across the country, and by the end of the year the unrest had deteriorated into an armed rebellion, with an influx of both weapons and fighters from outside the country bolstering opposition forces mainly composed of defected soldiers and civilian volunteers. However, the opposition has remained fractured, both politically and militarily, into groups representing a wide spectrum of positions, from those advocating non-violence and dialogue with the Ba'ath Party, to those supporting violent subversion and all-out war against the state. The Syrian government characterizes the insurgency as an uprising of "armed terrorist groups and foreign mercenaries". The conflict has had no clear fronts, with clashes taking place in many towns and cities across the country.

Until late 2011 the armed conflict had not reached the biggest cities of Damascus and Aleppo, but in mid-2012 full-scaled urban battle began in Damascus, followed by the even more deadly battle of Aleppo. On 15 July 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross assessed the Syrian conflict as a "non-international armed conflict" (the ICRC's legal term for civil war), thus applying international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions to both sides in the conflict. Throughout that year, however, the civil war degenerated further into a regional conflict, and in late 2012 the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra had achieved growing influence within the opposition military forces, while the Lebanon-based Hezbollah had entered the war in support of the Syrian government.

International opponents of the Syrian government, most notably Saudi Arabia and Qatar in Arabia, and the United Kingdom and France in Europe, responded to the conflict by focussing increasingly on what they regarded as the state's violation of human rights. Meanwhile, Iran and Russia, which both have ties of friendship with the Syrian government, have provided an increasing counterweight to this position, and Russia has shown readiness to supply weaponry to the state if necessary. For its part, the Arab League suspended Syria's membership because of what is regarded as the government's disproportionately violent response to the crisis, and granted Syria's seat on 6 March 2013 to the Syrian National Coalition, one of the main factions of the rebellion.

The war degenerated into a stalemate in early 2013, with both sides making limited advances in different places. According to the UN, the conflict was becoming "overtly sectarian in nature", though both the opposition forces and the Syrian government deny that sectarianism plays any key role in the conflict. On 2 January 2013, the United Nations released an estimate that the war's death toll had exceeded 60,000; by 15 May, this figure was updated to 80,000. According to various sources, between 70,000 and 90,000 people have been killed, of which up to half were civilians. By October 2012, up to 28,000 people had been reported missing, including civilians forcibly abducted by both opposition groups and government forces. According to the UN, about 4 million Syrians have been displaced within the country, and as many as 1.5 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries. International organizations have accused both government and opposition forces of severe human rights violations, and accusations have been made against both sides of illegally using chemical weaponry.

More about the Syrian civil war...

Selected article

The Free Syrian Army (Arabic: الجيش السوري الحر‎, al-Jaysh as-Sūrī al-Ḥurr, FSA) is an armed opposition structure operating in Syria during the Syrian civil war. Composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel and volunteers, its formation was announced on 29 July 2011 in a video released on the internet by a uniformed group of deserters from the Syrian military who called upon members of the Syrian army to defect and join them. The FSA's leader in August 2011, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, announced that the FSA would work with demonstrators to bring down the regime, and declared that all security forces attacking civilians were justified targets. The FSA coordinated with the Syrian National Council starting in December 2011, and supported the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces after the coalition's November 2012 creation. A major reorganisation of the FSA command structure occurred in December 2012, with al-Asaad retaining his formal role but losing effective power and Brigadier General Salim Idris becoming Chief of Staff and effective leader.

Battles - Operations - Massacres - Bombings - International incidents

Portal:Syrian civil war/Battles - Operations - Massacres - Bombings - International incidents

Diplomacy

Muslims and Christians at a meeting with Arab League monitors in Damascus on 17 January 2012.

International diplomacy

Peace proposals

Russia's role in the Syrian conflict
- US-Russia peace proposal on Syria
- 39th G8 summit

Personalities

Maher al-Assad (WIA)

Mohammad al-Shaar (WIA)

Salim Idris

Riad al-Asaad (WIA)

Abu Mohammad al-Golani(WIA)

Salih Muslim Muhammad

Diverse

Impact on historic heritage

Damaged heritage sites

Refugees

Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Sep. 2012.

Syrian refugees

Refugee camps

Human rights violations

Related portals


Middle East	Arab world

War	Politics

Syria	Kurdistan

Lebanon	Iraq

Turkey	Jordan

Selected biography

Bashar Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: بشار حافظ الأسد‎ Baššār Ḥāfiẓ al-ʾAsad; born 11 September 1965) is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He has served as President since 2000, when he succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for 30 years prior to his death.

Al-Assad graduated from the medical school of the University of Damascus in 1988, and started to work as a physician in the army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, in London, specializing in ophthalmology. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel, the heir apparent to their father, was killed in a car crash, Bashar was hastily recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role. He entered the military academy, and took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, née Akhras. Al-Assad was elected as President of Syria in 2000 and 2007, unopposed each time.

Initially seen by the domestic and international community as a potential reformer, this expectation ceased when he ordered a mass crackdown and military sieges on protesters during the Arab Spring, which gave way to the events of the Syrian civil war. The domestic Syrian opposition and large parts of the wider international community have subsequently called for al-Assad's resignation from power.