Syrian civil war

Syrian civil war
Part of the First Arab Spring, Arab Winter, Second Arab Spring, Iraqi Civil War, War against the Islamic State, War on Terror, Kurdish–Turkish and Arab–Israeli conflicts; and the Iran–Turkey, Iran–Israel, Iran–Saudi, Qatar–Saudi and Russia-U.S. proxy wars
Military situation as of 7 January 2025 at 2:00pm ET Syrian transitional government:   Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and allies   Arab defectors from the SDF   Southern Operations Room[1][2] Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria:   Syrian Democratic Forces and American occupation Syrian Interim Government:   Syrian National Army and Turkish occupation Other former rebel forces:   Syrian Free Army   Syrian Free Army and American occupation Others:   Russian occupation   Israeli occupation[a]   Uncertain/mixed (full list of factions, detailed map)
Date 15 March 2011 (2011-03-15)[b] – present[c] (13 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 5 days) Location Syria (with spillovers in neighboring countries) Status Ongoing Bashar al-Assad is overthrown Rebels capture most of Syria and establish a transitional government Israel invades the Golan Heights buffer zone and the neighboring Syrian towns The SNA clashes with SDF forces in Northeastern Syria
Belligerents
Full list of factions
Casualties and losses
Total deaths 580,000[13]–617,910+[14] Civilian deaths 219,223–306,887+[d][15][16] Displaced people 6.7 million internally 6.6 million externally (refugees) (March 2021)[17]

This article is part of a series about Bashar al-Assad
Personal Early life Family Personal life Presidency Foreign policy Presidential trips Occupation of Lebanon Cedar Revolution Damascus Spring Damascus Declaration Operation Outside the Box Syrian civil war Arab Spring Syrian revolution Arab–Israeli conflict War against ISIS COVID-19 pandemic Regime fall (Fall of Damascus (2024)) Governments Mero I Mero II Al-Otari Safar Hijab Al-Halqi I Al-Halqi II Khamis Arnous I Arnous II Jalali Elections 2000 2007 2014 2021
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Part of a series on
Ba'athism
Organizations Arab Ba'ath 1940–1947 Arab Ba'ath Movement 1940–1947 Ba'ath Party 1947–1966 Baath Party (pro-Iraqi) 1968–2003 Baath Party (pro-Syrian) 1966–2024
Variants Neo-Ba'athism 1966–2024 Saddamism 1979–2003
People Zaki al-Arsuzi Michel Aflaq Salah al-Din al-Bitar Abdullah Rimawi Wahib al-Ghanim Fuad al-Rikabi Salah Jadid Hafez al-Assad Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Saddam Hussein Bashar al-Assad Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
Literature On the Way of Resurrection The Battle for One Destiny The Genius of Arabic in Its Tongue
History Ba'athist Iraq Attempted assassination of Abdul-Karim Qasim Ramadan Revolution November 1963 coup d'état 17 July Revolution 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge Iran–Iraq War Gulf War UN sanctions Iraq War De-Ba'athification Ba'athist Syria Syrian Committee to Help Iraq 1963 / 1966 coup d'états Syrian invasion of Jordan Corrective Revolution Intervention in Lebanon Syrian occupation of Lebanon Syrian civil war Fall of the Assad regime
Regional organizations Algeria pro-Iraq pro-Syria Bahrain pro-Iraq pro-Syria Egypt pro-Iraq pro-Syria Iraq pro-Iraq pro-Syria Jordan pro-Iraq pro-Syria Kuwait pro-Iraq Lebanon pro-Iraq pro-Syria Libya pro-Iraq Mauritania pro-Iraq pro-Syria Palestine pro-Iraq pro-Syria Sudan pro-Iraq pro-Syria Syria pro-Iraq pro-Syria Tunisia pro-Iraq pro-Syria Yemen pro-Iraq pro-Syria
Splinter groups Arab Socialist Revolutionary Ba'ath Party 1960–1962/63 Socialist Lebanon 1965–1970 Arab Revolutionary Workers Party 1966–present Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party 1970–present Sudanese Ba'ath Party 2002–present
Armed groups Arab Liberation Front Al-Awda Al-Abud Network Jeish Muhammad Rejectionists Snake Party Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation Naqshbandi Army General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries Free Iraqi Army
Related topics Arab nationalism Arab socialism Assadist-Saddamist conflict Nasserism Pan-Arabism Unity, Freedom, Socialism
Politics portal Socialism portal
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The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.

Rebel forces, which received arms from Gulf Cooperation Council states, Turkey and some Western countries, initially made significant advances against the government forces, which were receiving financial and military support from Iran and Russia. Rebels captured the regional capitals of Raqqa in 2013 and Idlib in 2015. Consequently, Iran launched a military intervention in support of the Syrian government in 2014 and Russia followed in 2015, shifting the balance of the conflict. By late 2018, all rebel strongholds except parts of Idlib region had fallen to the government forces.

In 2014, the Islamic State won many battles against both the rebel factions and the Syrian government. Combined with simultaneous success in Iraq, the group was able to seize control of large parts of Eastern Syria and Western Iraq, prompting the US-led CJTF coalition to launch an aerial bombing campaign against it, while providing ground support and supplies to the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces. By way of battles that culminated in the Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor offensives, the Islamic State was territorially defeated by late 2017. In August 2016, Turkey launched a multi-pronged invasion of northern Syria, in response to the creation of Rojava, while also fighting the Islamic State and government forces in the process. Between the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire and late 2024, frontline fighting mostly subsided, but there were regular skirmishes.

Heavy fighting renewed with a major rebel offensive in the northwest led by Tahrir al-Sham and supported by allied groups in the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army in November 2024, during which Aleppo, Hama and Homs were seized. Southern rebels who had previously reconciled with the government subsequently launched their own offensive, capturing Daraa and Suwayda. The Syrian Free Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces launched their own offensives in Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor, respectively. By 8 December, rebel forces had seized the capital, Damascus. Following this, the Assad regime collapsed, with al-Assad fleeing to Moscow. On the same day, Israel launched an invasion of Syria's Quneitra Governorate, aiming to seize the UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights. The SNA continued to clash with the SDF in and around Aleppo.

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