Syria: The story of the conflict

Syria: The story of the conflict

More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State. This is the story of the civil war so far, in eight short chapters.

1. Uprising turns violent

Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.

The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country.

2. Descent into civil war

Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were formed to battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting reached the capital Damascus and second city of Aleppo in 2012.

By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. By August 2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000, according to activists and the UN.

3. War crimes

A UN commission of inquiry has evidence that all parties to the conflict have committed war crimes - including murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearances. They have also been accused of using civilian suffering - such as blocking access to food, water and health services through sieges - as a method of war.

The UN Security Council has demanded all parties end the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas, but civilians continue to die in their thousands. Many have been killed by barrel bombs dropped by government aircraft on gatherings in rebel-held areas - attacks which the UN says may constitute massacres.

4. Chemical weapons

Hundreds of people were killed in August 2013 after rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin were fired at several suburbs of Damascus. Western powers said it could only have been carried out by Syria's government, but the government blamed rebel forces.

Facing the prospect of US military intervention, President Assad agreed to the complete removal and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

The operation was completed the following year, but the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has continued to document the use of toxic chemicals in the conflict. Investigators found chlorine was used "systematically and repeatedly" in deadly attacks on rebel-held areas between April and July 2014.

5. Humanitarian crisis

More than 4.5 million people have fled Syria since the start of the conflict, most of them women and children. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history. About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe, sowing political divisions as countries argue over sharing the burden.

A further 6.5 million people are internally displaced inside Syria, 1.2 million were driven from their homes in 2015 alone.

SYRIA'S CIVIL WAR

Geneva talks improbable to concentrate on move in Syria 

Assad's future might be off the motivation at meeting of Syrian groups, with races and administration set to be the core interest. 

The workplace of the UN uncommon emissary to Syria has declined to affirm whether a political move will be examined at the prospective talks in Geneva.

The advancement implies Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's future will be off the motivation and the principle center of the discussions among different Syrian groups will be administration, another constitution and races.

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Staffan de Mistura, the emissary, is expected to gather the new round in the Swiss city on February 23, just about nine months after peace arrangements caved in.

A representative for de Mistura said he was all the while concluding who might go to the meeting, however there were at that point positive reactions to solicitations that had gone out.

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Nations restricted to Assad, including the US, back endeavors by the UN to handle a political answer for the contention, Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's remote clergyman, said on Friday.

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"Unmistakably all who met need a political arrangement ... furthermore, that this political arrangement must be accomplished in Geneva under the protection of the United Nations and that there can't be any parallel transactions," Gabriel said after a meeting in Bonn that incorporated the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France and the UK.

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The nations were meeting interestingly since Donald Trump took office as US president in an offer to discover shared conviction ahead of time of the Geneva meeting.
Gabriel said Rex Tillerson, the new US secretary of state, assumed a dynamic part in the discourses about how to end the war in Syria, which occurred on the sidelines of a meeting in Bonn, Germany, of G20 outside clergymen.

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Tillerson, attempting to promise partners that the US was not tilting towards Russia over the Syrian clash, revealed to them that the US-upheld UN endeavors to expedite a political answer for the war, authorities and representatives said.

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MIDDLE EAST

Saudi Arabia says four ISIL cells separated 

No less than 18 captured for giving haven and assets to ISIL warriors and for enlistment in various parts of kingdom. 


Saudi Arabia has separated four ISIL-connected cells associated with giving sanctuary and assets to needed contenders, and selecting warriors, as indicated by nearby news media reports refering to the inside service.

Programmed weapons were seized from the four cells, which included 15 Saudis, two Yemenis and a Sudanese man, the Saudi Press Agency cited the service as saying on Thursday.

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Security constrains additionally seized more than $500,000 in real money, the reports said.
The crackdown, which started on Saturday, focused on the ISIL cells that had been working in the districts of Mecca, Medina, Qassim and the capital Riyadh, as indicated by Mansour al-Turki, the Saudi inside service representative.

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Among those covered up by the cells was Taye al-Say'ari, one of two presumed warriors killed in a security operation in Riyadh a month ago.

SYRIA'S CIVIL WAR

Battling heightens in Syria's Deraa 

Substantial Russian assaults revealed after revolutionaries attempt to discourage Syrian government offer to retake key outskirt crossing. 

Russia's military has done rushes of air strikes as of late on revolt held regions of the southern Syrian city of Deraa, say against government contenders and witnesses.

Russian planes focused on revolt held territories of Deraa for two days after Syrian resistance gathers on Sunday raged the intensely garrisoned Manshiya region in a battle that looked to block any armed force endeavors to catch a vital outskirt crossing with Jordan from the restriction.

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A revolt source said that there were no less than 30 Russian fights on Tuesday, defeating further revolt picks up in the intensely protected enclave that had permitted them so far to secure critical parts of the Manshiya.

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"At the point when the administration started to lose control of a few territories ... the Russian planes started their operations," said Ibrahim Abdullah, a senior revolt officer.

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The armed force's control of the revolt held intersection and lumps of region in the southern segment of Deraa would separate the revolt interface between the eastern and west parts of the territory.

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The Syrian armed force said the "psychological oppressors" had neglected to make additions and its troops had delivered numerous losses.

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The restriction warriors are drawn from both direct Free Syrian Army gatherings and individuals from a recently shaped union - Tahrir al-Sham.

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The battling spread crosswise over different parts of Deraa as radicals terminated mortars on government-controlled parts of the region.

Russian and Turkish planes 'bomb ISIL' in Syria's Al Bab 

Russia's safeguard service says its warrior planes collaborated with Turkish warplanes to hit ISIL in northern Syria's Al Bab. 

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Russian and Turkish planes have done joint air attacks against ISIL warriors in the town of Al Bab in northern Syria, as per Russia's military. 

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Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior protection service official, said on Wednesday that nine Russian and eight Turkish warrior planes had together struck focuses in the town, found upper east of Aleppo. 

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The joint operation, the nearest collaboration between the two nations in Syria to date, denote an emotional warming of ties amongst Turkey and Russia, once strained by the shooting down of a Russian stream by a Turkish warplane in 2015. 

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"Turkey and Russia marked a notice of de-confliction in Moscow toward the finish of a week ago," Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, detailing from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey fringe, said. 

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"They consented to impart with regards to the flying airspace, in light of the fact that the airspace above Syria is exceptionally occupied with a wide range of nations flying." 

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The two nations have upheld restricting sides in the about six-year Syrian clash, yet are currently the fundamental coordinators of another round of peace talks because of happen in Kazakhstan on January 23. 

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They have made peace over the political destiny of President Bashar al-Assad to attempt to manufacture a more extensive Syria bargain.

18 JANUARY 2017