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The political map of Syria is bordered by the Mediterranean sea, Lebanon and Israel on the west and Jordan on the south, Iraq on the east and Turkey on the north. Its area inside is 71,498 sq miles.

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Mountains lie east and south of the land, to the east lies the Syrian desert. Syria has 2 big rivers called the Euphrates  and the Orontes. Syria has a coastal plain that runs along the Mediterranean sea from North to South.

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Muslim empires made by Muslim arab armies ruled for over 1,300 years.

The Umayyad Mosque was made by Umayyad Caliph al-Walīd I in 715 AD.

The church of saint simeon stylites, built in 475 AD

Souq al-Hamidiyyeh

Largest central souk in Syria, located inside Damascus, opened in 1884.

Old city

The historical city center of Damascus, Includes historical churches and mosques. The city was endangered around 2013 to 2018 by the civil war.

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Hot and dry during the summers and Cool and wet during Winter. The coast receives more rain with milder weather. Sunny summers from July to August.

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In early 2011, Many protests in demand for the resignation of the president broke out after the Syrian government used deadly force against the opinions of the pro-democrats. Violence escalated and the country went into civil war.  It had become a battle against Syrians and Bashar al-Assad,President of Syria.

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High unemployment rates, lack of political freedom, Between 2006 and 2010, Syria experienced one of the worst droughts which resulted in poverty for farming families which caused a mass migration, causing one of the first major protests. In November of 2011, Syrian officials agreed to the Arab league initiative that the Syrian government should stop violence against protestors. 2 months later the Arab League stopped on January 28th 2012

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Approximately more than 400,000 people in Syria have died in the past 10 years, 26,727 women died and 27,126 children passed away. Because of the refugee issue, Turkey agreed to taking care of its Syrian refugees. The ongoing war won’t be ending any time soon.

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Bashar al-Assad is the president of Syria, he has been incharge for over 21 years as he was in office since July 17th 2000. Bashar al-assad has killed thousands of innocent civilians and plays a big role in the syrian civil war even if he denies responsibility.

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The Syrian government military consists of 130,000 soldiers, The Syrian government Military has control over more than half the country. The Syrian military was accused of using chemical weapons, The Syrian military denied these accusations and claimed that if there were chemical weapons used it would be the rebels using them.

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The rebel groups killed many innocent civilians. The sunni opposition rebel groups like the Free Syrian army. The jihadists and the Kurdish rebel groups are two of the biggest groups in Syria. Rebel forces go against the government  of Syria and the Islamic state group.

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ISIS stands for the Islamic state of iraq. It reemerged in 2011 when the Syrian civil war began. Abu Mohammad al-Adnani is the chief spokesperson of ISIS. It was founded in 1999 by Abū Muṣʻab Zarqāwī. ISIS is the islamic state for both Iraq and Syria. 45,377square kilometers of both Syria and Iraq and controlled by ISIS.

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The Syrian Democratic Forces is an alliance composed of Kurdish, Arab and syriac. General of the alliance is  Mazloum Abdi. Kurdish forces had a civil war with Iraqi kurdistans which took place during the 1990s. Kurdish forces currently have 80,000 to 100,000 fighters in  the war and 13,000 have died fighting to drive out ISIS.

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There are 900 U.S soldiers fighting in Syria. The U.S has troops in Eastern Syria in effort to counter ISIS. The U.S expects to take  in more than 70,000 refugees from Syria. The U.S military has helped Syria by giving aid and intelligence support.

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131,750 civilians have died in the past 10 years, 350,000+ people have died during the civil war, The exact amount is still unknown but an estimate could range from 499,657 to 610,000

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Civilians of Syria have lost their families and homes due to the civil war. More than 6 million people from Syria are refugees and asylum-seekers. Another 6 million are displaced forcibly. The civilians of Syria face human rights issues everyday.

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Ever since the war began, Syria has faced the worst economic crisis. Currency depreciated 90% and inflation reached 700%. The cost of the conflict over the range of 10 years has been $442.5 billion. Due to the conflict, low economy, corruption etc, Syria faces extreme poverty.

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The U.S should do no harm, is one solution but a challenge the U.S could face is if the U.S is attacked but cannot fight back. Taking in refugees could also create a problem for poverty rates and overpopulation.

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A peaceful uprising against the president of Syria 12 years ago turned into a full-scale civil war. The conflict has left half a million people dead, devastated cities and drawn in other countries.

Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, after he died in 2000.

In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the southern city of Deraa, inspired by uprisings in neighbouring countries against repressive rulers.

When the Syrian government used deadly force to crush the dissent, protests demanding the president's resignation erupted nationwide.

The unrest spread and the crackdown intensified. Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to rid their areas of security forces. Mr Assad vowed to crush what he called "foreign-backed terrorism".

The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war. Hundreds of rebel groups sprung up and it did not take long for the conflict to become more than a battle between Syrians for or against Mr Assad. Foreign powers began to take sides, sending money, weaponry and fighters, and as the chaos worsened extremist jihadist organisations with their own aims, such as the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda, became involved. That deepened concern among the international community who saw them as a major threat.

Syria's Kurds, who want the right of self-government but have not fought Mr Assad's forces, have added another dimension to the conflict.

The United Nations Human Rights Office estimated last year that 306,887 civilians - 1.5% of the total pre-war population - were killed between March 2011 and March 2021 due to the conflict.

It said 143,350 civilian deaths were individually documented by various sources with detailed information, and that a further 163,537 deaths were estimated to have occurred using statistical techniques. At least 27,126 of those estimated to have been killed were children.

The then-UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, stressed that the fatalities were the "direct result of war operations", adding: "This does not include the many, many more civilians who died due to the loss of access to healthcare, to food, to clean water and other essential human rights."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, had documented the deaths of 503,064 people by March 2023. It said at least 162,390 civilians had been killed, with the Syrian government and its allies responsible for 139,609 of those deaths.

The group estimated that the actual toll from the war was more than 613,400, with an additional 55,000 civilians believed to have died of torture in government-run prisons.

Another monitoring group, the Violations Documentation Center, which relies on information from activists across the country, had documented 240,215 battle-related deaths, including 145,765 civilians, as of March 2023.

The government's key supporters have been Russia and Iran, while Turkey, Western powers and several Gulf Arab states have backed the opposition to varying degrees during the conflict.

Russia - which had military bases in Syria before the war - launched an air campaign in support of Mr Assad in 2015 that has been crucial in turning the tide of the war in the government's favour.

The Russian military says its strikes only target "terrorists" but activists say they regularly kill mainstream rebels and civilians.

Iran is believed to have deployed hundreds of troops and spent billions of dollars to help Mr Assad.

Thousands of Shia Muslim militiamen armed, trained and financed by Iran - mostly from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, but also Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen - have also fought alongside the Syrian army.

The US, UK and France initially armed what they considered "moderate" rebel groups. But they have prioritised non-lethal assistance since jihadists became the dominant force in the armed opposition.

A US-led global coalition has also carried out air strikes and deployed special forces in Syria since 2014 to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture territory once held by IS militants in the north-east and stop the jihadist group rebuilding.

Turkey is a major supporter of the opposition, but its focus has been on using rebel factions to contain the Kurdish YPG militia that dominates the SDF, accusing it of being an extension of a banned Kurdish rebel group in Turkey.

Turkish troops and allied rebels have seized stretches of territory along Syria's northern border and intervened to stop an all-out assault by government forces on the last opposition stronghold of Idlib.

Saudi Arabia, which is keen to counter Iranian influence, armed and financed the rebels at the start of the war. Having refused to engage with President Assad for more than a decade, it is now discussing how to facilitate Syria's "return to the Arab fold".

Israel, meanwhile, has been so concerned by what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment" in Syria and shipments of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah and other Shia militias that it has conducted air strikes with increasing frequency in an attempt to thwart them.

Twelve years of war have inflicted immense suffering on the Syrian people.

In addition to the bloodshed, more than half of Syria's pre-war population of 22 million have had to flee their homes. Some 6.8 million are internally displaced, with more than two million living in tented camps with limited access to basic services.

Another 6 million are refugees or asylum-seekers abroad. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, which are hosting 5.3 million of them, have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history.

At the start of 2023, the UN said 15.3 million people inside Syria were in need of some form of humanitarian assistance - an all-time high since the war began - and 12 million did not know where their next meal was coming from.

The already dire humanitarian situation in north-western Syria - the location of the last opposition stronghold - was made significantly worse by the huge earthquake that struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 80km (50 miles) from the Syrian border, on 6 February 2023.

More than 5,900 people were killed across Syria and another 8.8 million were affected, according to the UN. Thousands of homes and critical infrastructure were destroyed, leaving many families without food, water and shelter. Deliveries of life-saving aid to opposition-held areas were also delayed for days because of what a UN panel described as "shocking" failures by the warring parties as well as the international community.

The disaster happened at a time when the prices of food and fuel in Syria were already skyrocketing because of runaway inflation and the collapse of its currency, as well as the global crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Syria has also been one of the countries in the Middle East worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic - although the true extent is not known because of limited testing - and is now also having to deal with a deadly cholera outbreak that was made worse by the earthquake.

Access to medical care is severely restricted for the sick and injured because only half of the country's hospitals are fully functional.

Despite their protected status, 601 attacks on at least 400 separate medical facilities had been documented by Physicians for Human Rights as of February 2022, resulting in the deaths of 942 medical personnel. The vast majority of the attacks were blamed on government and Russian forces.

Entire neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure across the country also remain in ruins. UN satellite analysis suggested that more than 35,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in Aleppo city alone before it was recaptured by the government in late 2016.

Much of Syria's rich cultural heritage has likewise been destroyed. All six of the country's Unesco World Heritage sites have been damaged significantly, with IS militants deliberately blowing up parts of the ancient city of Palmyra.

A UN commission of inquiry has concluded that the warring parties "have cumulatively committed almost every crime against humanity... and nearly every war crime applicable in a non-international armed conflict".

"Syrians," a February 2021 report says, "have suffered vast aerial bombardments of densely populated areas; they have endured chemical weapons attacks and modern day sieges in which perpetrators deliberately starved the population along medieval scripts and indefensible and shameful restrictions on humanitarian aid".

The government has regained control of Syria's biggest cities, but large parts of the country are still held by rebels, jihadists and the Kurdish-led SDF. There have been no shifts in the front lines for three years.

The last remaining opposition stronghold is in the north-western province of Idlib and adjoining parts of northern Hama and western Aleppo provinces.

The region is dominated by a jihadist alliance called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), but is also home to mainstream rebel factions backed by Turkey. An estimated 2.9 million displaced people, including a million children, are living there, many of them in dire conditions in camps.

In March 2020, Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib. That led to an extended lull in violence, but there continues to be sporadic clashes, air strikes and shelling.

In the country's north-east, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels launched an offensive against the SDF in October 2019 to create a "safe zone" clear of Kurdish YPG militia along the Syrian side of the border, and have occupied a 120km (75 miles) long stretch since.

To halt the assault the SDF struck a deal with the Syrian government that saw the Syrian army return to the Kurdish-administered region for the first time in seven years. Despite the presence of Syrian troops, there are still regular clashes between the SDF and Turkish-led forces along the front line.

IS sleeper cells also continue to carry out frequent and deadly attacks.

It does not look like it will anytime soon, but everyone agrees a political solution is required.

The UN Security Council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, which envisages a transitional governing body "formed on the basis of mutual consent".

Nine rounds of UN-mediated peace talks - known as the Geneva II process - failed to make progress, with President Assad apparently unwilling to negotiate with political opposition groups that insist he must step down as part of any settlement.

Russia, Iran and Turkey set up parallel political talks known as the Astana process in 2017.

An agreement was reached the following year to form a 150-member committee to write a new constitution, leading to free and fair elections supervised by the UN. But little progress has been achieved after eight rounds of talks.

As the conflict entered its 13th year, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said the situation in Syria was "untenable" and that "to carry on in the same manner, defies humanity and logic".

But he also expressed hope that the devastating earthquake could be a "turning point", noting the "humanitarian steps from all sides that have moved beyond previous positions, even if temporarily".
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While the world's attention is focused on Ukraine, Syria is still suffering in its long war.

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ince the start of the war in Syria in early 2011, the number of people fleeing the country has swelled to more than 3 million - half of them children. The US has accepted only a staggering few - just 36 in 2013.

Though the US has recently pledged to accept thousands more over the next few years, the resettlement process is complex and protracted. In some cases, refugees are left waiting in camps for up to three years before they are cleared to board a plane to America. This is in part due to sweeping US counter-terrorism laws that have, until recently, been ensnaring Syrians who pose no threat.

With no end in sight to the country's brutal war, which has claimed upwards of 190,000 lives, according to the UN's latest figures, refugee advocacy groups are calling on the US to fast-track the process for Syria's most vulnerable and absorb a greater number of its refugees. Since the US-led coalition against Isis began conducting air strikes within Syria two weeks ago, likely pushing more refugees across borders, there is a heightened sense of urgency.

Less than a year ago, the number of registered Syrian refugees stood at just 2 million, spread across Syria's neighbouring countries. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) recently pointed to "increasingly horrifying conditions inside the country", which likely included atrocities committed by the Assad regime and extremist militant groups like Isis, to explain the explosion in the number of refugees over the past year.

The majority of displaced Syrians have crossed into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, with close to 1.2 million of those in Lebanon alone - though aid agencies concede the number could be much higher owing to unregistered refugees who have settled in makeshift communities.

Additionally, the war has also displaced 6.5 million people within Syria, meaning that roughly 50% of all Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.

"The key challenge in the Middle East is the fast-moving situation and high numbers of refugees and internally displaced people involved. In the past week in Turkey for example, we had another 160,000 refugees flee and need urgent life-saving aid," said Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR's Middle East and North Africa division.

Resettlement: not a top priority

The US - which traditionally accepts more refugees than any other country- has resettled 191 Syrian refugees since March 2011, although the vast majority of these applied for resettlement before the conflict broke out, a State Department spokesperson said in an email.

The UN has repeatedly called on world leaders to resettle Syria's displaced, and relieve the heavy burden placed on its neighbours. The international community has pledged to resettle more than 33,000 displaced Syrian s by the end of 2014, with the UNHCR setting a new target of 130,000 by the end of 2016.

The US, however, does not view resettlement as its top priority.

"Our primary goal is to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to refugees in the places to which they have fled," a State Department representative said. The US has so far donated more than $2.9bn in humanitarian aid funds, making it the largest single donor.

Shannon Scribner, humanitarian policy manager at Oxfam America, said the US needs to increase its response to the growing refugee crisis.

"The recent military intervention does put an onus on the US to think about and strategise a plan for the impact that [the air strikes] may have on the region and the refugees it creates," Scribner said.

A Syrian Kurdish refugee woman with her daughter wait for transportation after crossing into Turkey. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

The slow journey to America

The reason the US has taken only a tiny number of refugees to date is more procedural than political, said Anna Greene, the policy and advocacy director for US programmes at the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

"It's not a question of the US refusing to take cases," she said. "This was a structural reality."

Greene said the UN prioritised sending refugees to other countries, especially European ones like Germany, because they had already made specific pledges.

Though the US has still not committed to taking a certain number of refugees, a State Department representative said the US expects to resettle "many thousands more in 2015 and 2016". Given that the US resettlement process can take an average of 12 months to complete, Greene said she would "expect to see those cases coming to the US next summer and fall".

The US formally set up a resettlement programme for refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict last fall. A refugee's resettlement process to the US typically begins with a referral from the UNHCR. The refugees then undergo extensive background checks and are interviewed abroad by a Department of Homeland Security field officer.

When a person or family is finally deemed admissible, they will complete a final security and medical check and cultural orientation training before boarding the plane to America. The entire process generally takes 12 months, but it can last up to three years.

"It should be noted in the case of the US and in other countries, refugees also pay for some of their resettlement costs - such as airplane tickets," said Larry Yungk, the senior resettlement officer at UNHCR Washington. "In the US, refugees pay for these costs through a loan system," which can be an added complication for some.

But when refugees are relocated to the US, it's for good. The resettlement programme is designed to set refugees on a path to citizenship. Upon arrival, refugees are initially cared for by one of the more than a dozen NGOs, which will help them find housing, work and schools for their children.

An aerial view of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, where more than 80,000 Syrians currently reside. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Material support: a barrier to admission?

Many Syrians fleeing violence in their native country will qualify for refugee status based on the US definition, which requires a "fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion."

But US counter-terrorism laws, beefed up in the wake of 9/11, can be a real barrier to admission.

Until recently, Syrians who provided "material support" to groups the US identified as terror organisations could be barred from refugee status, even if they did not actually pose any threat to the US. Human Rights First gives as one hypothetical example the owner of a food stand in a neighbourhood under opposition control who sold falafel sandwiches to fighters.

In February, however, the US loosened the entry requirements so that refugees who provided "insignificant material support" to armed groups would not be categorically denied entry. The policy change was directed specifically at refugees who interacted with Syria's rebel forces, some of which the US has pledged to train and support.

Greene of the IRC said this was a critical change, because in the context of Syria's war, the material support policy unduly punished refugees. She said there is not enough evidence yet to know how the rules will be applied.

Choosing among 'the vulnerable of the vulnerable'

The US places a strict, but not immoveable, ceiling on the number of refugees it admits annually. The president, in consultation with Congress, sets a global limit, which is then broken down by region. For 2015, the US will accept 70,000 refugees from across the globe; 33,000 of those spots are reserved for refugees from the Near East and south Asia. The US will not create a separate refugee programme for Syrians, as it did for Iraqi refugees.

Michael Kagan, an expert in international refugee law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said there are serious ethical concerns, not to mention administrative hurdles, to consider when deciding which of the refugees to accept.

"These programmes are often looking for the vulnerable of the vulnerable," Kagan said, a category that can include unaccompanied children, medical cases, at-risk women, and victims of torture.

Kagan said it will take an "incredible" administrative apparatus to screen every refugee, and even then, there will be ethical concerns about how the decisions are made.

More than 1 million people were displaced this year because of violence in the Central African Republic. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

However, "given the large needs in the Syrian refugee population and the relatively small number of resettlement places available globally - not every refugee who falls into these vulnerable categories can be resettled," Yungk said.

Since the US hasn't pledged a specific number, aid groups have made varying requests. Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), a key umbrella group, recommended the US resettle 65,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years. The council said the number is based on the expectation that the US honors its "tradition of accepting at least half of all UNHCR referrals for any given population".

However, Greene said at this point the US is only accepting Syrians as part of the global ceiling; she is not aware of a dedicated programme that would accept Syrian refugees outside the limit.

Furthermore, Kagan cautioned against establishing a special programme for Syrians, in part because it sends the message that one refugee's case is more compelling than another's.

"There are always other refugee crises around the world that are not on the front pages," he said. "If a programme were developed where all of the energy and all of the refugee resettlement places went to refugees from a single country, it might not really be an equitable programme and it might abandon other people who have equally compelling situations."

With each day the war drags on, more refugees are being created, exacerbating what is already the largest global refugee crisis since the second world war. The UN estimates that the number could rise to more than 4 million by the end of this year.

"Historically, the world does a terrible job of resolving refugee crises," Kagan said.

"What's scary when you look at the Syrians is that it's certainly possible that many of these millions of refugees could still be in limbo years or decades from now."

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Syria's civil war has forced 3m refugees to flee the country - why is the US accepting so few?

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ince the start of the war in Syria in early 2011, the number of people fleeing the country has swelled to more than 3 million - half of them children. The US has accepted only a staggering few - just 36 in 2013.

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Despite claiming responsibility for attacks like the one in London, the group is dying. It will retain the ability to inspire.

The Islamic State is claiming responsibility for the London attack that left three people and the attacker dead on Wednesday. "It is believed that this attacker acted alone," Prime Minister Theresa May said, adding that the British-born man, already known to authorities, was inspired by "Islamist terrorism." For its part, ISIS called the attacker its "soldier" in a report published by its Amaq news agency in both Arabic and English. The caliphate, it seemed, was eager to signal to a broad audience that it was as busy and effective as ever. The facts, however, tell a different story.

Back in 2014, God was on the side of ISIS-or so it appeared, and so ISIS claimed, with some plausibility. The speed and scope of its ascent was extraordinary. In mid-June it seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and in the following months it annexed a Britain-sized swath of territory crossing Syria and Iraq. In his historic June 29 statement, in which he declared the restoration of the caliphate and announced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its leader or caliph, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said:

It is a hope that flutters in the heart of every mujahid [one who does jihad] and muwahhid [monotheist]. ... It is the caliphate-the abandoned obligation of the era. ... The sun of jihad has risen. The glad tidings of good are shining. Triumph looms on the horizon. The signs of victory have appeared. ... Now the caliphate has returned. ... Now the dream has become a reality.

Al-Adnani also warned ISIS fighters that they would face "tests and quakes," and the next few months proved him right about that. But he couldn't have been more wrong about the "triumph" part.

Since August 2014, when it was at the height of its powers, ISIS has lost about 45 percent of its territory in Syria and 20 percent in Iraq-and with it a vast source of wealth generation. According to research conducted by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), ISIS's "annual revenue has more than halved: from up to $1.9b in 2014 to a maximum of $870m in 2016." At the same time, the flow of foreign fighters to the caliphate has plummeted, from a peak of 2,000 crossing the Turkey-Syria border each month in late 2014 to as few as 50 each month nowadays. The U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition has reportedly killed more than 10,000 ISIS fighters, including al-Adnani, who was targeted in a U.S. drone strike last August, and other notable leadership figures. And last month Iraqi government forces took complete control of Eastern Mosul.

More than two and a half years after al-Adnani's statement, "the sun" of ISIS's jihad would appear to be setting. Far from becoming an entrenched reality, ISIS's self-declared caliphate is desperately hanging on for survival and will in all probability return to the dreamscape from which it came. God, it turns out, has switched sides and deserted ISIS-or so it seems, and so ISIS's enemies can claim, with some plausibility.

It's far too early to be writing ISIS's obituary, but it seems likely that the group will lose its hold on Mosul and its de-facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria by the end of the year, although much will depend on what role the United States takes on in coalition efforts to defeat the group.

What will happen to ISIS-both as a physical entity and as an idea-once it is removed from its territorial bases in Iraq and Syria?

Theexpert consensus seems to be that ISIS as a physical entity will retreat into the desert, where it will regroup in some form or other, just as it did after the U.S.-led surge in Iraq in 2007. Whether such a retreat will spell the end of ISIS in the long term will depend crucially on the political situation in Iraq. If nothing is done to change the power balance between Sunnis and Shia, and if Sunni civilians are massacred out of misplaced revenge for ISIS atrocities, there is every possibility that ISIS will again return and resume a footing among Sunni communities. As Hassan Hassan put it in The New York Times, if there is no Sunni group in Iraq that can "fill the void left by the Islamic State," then ISIS "will once again emerge from the desert."

A return to the desert will almost certainly make it harder for ISIS to mount large-scale attacks on Western targets, although it may intensify the desire to mount such attacks as a way of signaling continuing relevance and resilience to the wider jihadist community. And although surviving foreign fighters may seek to return to their countries of origin to launch attacks there, incidents of remotely guided lone wolf attacks in the West may actually decline, given the diminishing symbolic rewards a degraded ISIS is able to provide distant would-be-martyrs.

Loss of territory will also, as Georgetown's Bruce Hoffman recently observed, greatly reduce ISIS's global appeal, making it difficult to recruit and retain supporters. Indeed, it may even, as political scientist Mara Revkin suggested in The New York Times, "trigger a credibility crisis from which the group may never fully recover," given that ISIS's self-avowed status as the world's preeminent jihadist actor is based almost entirely on its control of territory and ability to govern.

The other point of consensus is that the destruction of the caliphate will not spell the end of the caliphate as an idea; it will live on not only in the minds of surviving ISIS members, but also as a free-floating ideological meme in contemporary global culture. ISIS analyst Charlie Winter, for example, argued that one way in which this meme will be preserved is through ISIS's massive digital propaganda archive. "The caliphate idea will exist long beyond its proto-state," Winter wrote.

No doubt there will be some ISIS foreign fighters for whom territorial defeat of the caliphate will spark a spiritual crisis, prompting disaffection from ISIS and disillusionment with its animating ideology.
Among a sample of 58 ISIS defectors, only a few had renounced their commitment to the jihadist ideology.
But for many others, especially those true believers whose core identity is intricately and indisociably bound up with ISIS, it will spark disaffection from neither the group nor its animating ideology. For these diehards, ISIS will remain the divinely ordained real deal whose setbacks are merely temporary and whose ultimate triumph is guaranteed. It's not that God has abandoned the mujahidsin favor of the infidel; rather, it's that trial and torment are inevitable on the path of jihad, and must be endured. Even if territorial defeat does occur, it will not be a "true" defeat, as al-Adnani explained in his last recorded massage in May 2016: "Whoever thinks that we fight to protect some land or some authority, or that victory is measured thereby, has strayed far from the truth. ... O America, would we be defeated and you be victorious if you were to take Mosul or Sirte or Raqqa? ... Certainly not! We would be defeated and you victorious only if you were able to remove the Quran from Muslims' hearts."

For others still, territorial defeat of the caliphate may prompt defection from ISIS, but not from its worldview. In John Horgan's research on former terrorists, many belonged to this category: "disengaged" but not "de-radicalized." "Often," Horgan wrote, "there can be physical disengagement from terrorist activity, but no concomitant change or reduction in ideological support."

There is some evidence to suggest that many former ISIS members are disengaged but ideologically committed. "Many of the ISIS deserters I have met in Turkey," Revkin wrote, "still identify as jihadists who want to establish some form of shariah-based governance, but they became disillusioned with ISIS when they saw that the group was failing to follow its own strict rules."

A report by the ICSR echoed this: Among a sample of 58 ISIS defectors, only a few had renounced their "commitment to the jihadist ideology," whereas "for the majority, the critique of [ISIS] continued to be framed in jihadist and/or sectarian terms." Terrorism researcher Amarnath Amarasingam categorized ex-ISIS foreign fighters as "disengaged returnees," writing, "While they may rescind their allegiance to a particular militant group, they remain committed to the broader cause of jihadism." According to German authorities, 48 percent of German fighters linked to ISIS and Al Qaeda returning from Syria and Iraq (274 in total) were still devoted to the cause of jihad.

The history of Western supporters of Soviet communism testifies to a similar phenomenon: Although many renounced their membership in the Communist Party and acknowledged its failures, they did not renounce their commitment to the ideals of communism. In The End of Commitment, the sociologist Paul Hollander called these unrepentant comrades "the unwavering," those whose "deep attachment to ends and ideals persists in the face of disillusioning experiences." By way of example, he cited the British social historian E. P. Thompson, who, in a 100-page " Open Letter" to the Polish philosopher and ex-communist Leszek Kołakowski, expressed his allegiance not to the Communist Party, "but to the Communist movement in its humanist potential."

Hollander also discussed the case of British historian Eric Hobsbawm, who, though he recognized the flaws inherent in existing communist societies, remained resolute in his commitment to the ends of communism. "The dream of the October Revolution," Hobsbawm wrote in his 2002 autobiography Interesting Times, "is still there somewhere inside me..."

For Hollander, such formidable intransigence, as exemplified by Thompson, Hobsbawm, and a host of other left-leaning intellectuals, is a testament to the power of utopian ideas-and their extraordinary capacity to inspire and retain allegiance even after history has decisively repudiated them.

This intransigence is also a testament to the need to believe-or rather, as the English writer Stephen Spender put it in his contribution to The God that Failed (a classic volume of essays by famous ex-communists), "the unwillingness of people to believe what they did not want to believe, to see what they do not want to see."

History will assuredly repudiate ISIS, just as it has decisively repudiated the utopian experiment of Soviet communism. But the idea of the caliphate will remain, despite its tarnished association with ISIS. Just as unrepentant communists said of their utopian vision of a classless society, today's caliphate supporters can say: The caliphate never failed-it was never tried.

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ISIS Will Fail, but What About the Idea of ISIS?

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Despite claiming responsibility for attacks like the one in London, the group is dying. It will retain the ability to inspire. The Islamic State is claiming responsibility for the London attack that left three people and the attacker dead on Wednesday.

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Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Syrian Civil War, by opposition activist groups, vary between 499,657 and about 610,000 as of March 2022. On 23 April 2016, the United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria put out an estimate of 400,000 that had died in the war. Based on Syria's pre-war population of 20.8 million from 2011, this represented approximately 2% of Syria's pre-war population. In late September 2021, the United Nations stated it had documented the deaths of at least 350,209 people in the conflict between March 2011 and March 2021, but cautioned the figure was "certainly an under-count".

By February 2017, Amnesty International estimated between 5,000 and 13,000 people had been executed in government prisons, and thousands more people are reported to have died due to torture by the Syrian government.

By mid-March 2022, the opposition activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the number of children killed in the conflict had risen to 25,286, and that 15,237 women had also been killed.

At the start of the war, Al Jazeera journalist Nir Rosen stated that many of the deaths reported daily by activists were in fact armed insurgents falsely presented as civilian deaths, but said that real civilian deaths do occur on a regular basis. Several Middle East analysts, including Sharmine Narwani from the Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper and the UAE/Saudi Al Arabiya website, also urged caution.

This was later confirmed when in late May 2012, Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is one of the opposition-affiliated groups counting the number of those killed in the uprising, stated that civilians who had taken up arms during the earliest days of the conflict were being counted under the category of "civilians" as they were not army nor army defectors.

In May 2013, SOHR stated that at least 41,000 of those killed during the conflict were Alawites. By April 2015, reportedly a third of the country's 250,000 Alawites that were of fighting age had been killed. In April 2017, a pro-opposition source claimed 150,000 young Alawites had died.

All of the following totals include civilians, rebels and government forces:

Time period

Pro-government forces

Anti-government forces

Civilians

Grand total (inc. unidentified)

According to the Syrian opposition website Syrian Martyrs, the conflict's death toll was 151,888 up to 30 April 2016, which was the time of its last update. The number includes 35,859 rebel combatants but does not include members of the government security forces or pro-government foreign combatants who have died. Early in the conflict, the Syrian Martyrs number of civilian deaths was significantly higher than the ones presented by other organisations, including the UN; among the reasons are that they recorded deaths even when no name is given for the reportedly killed individual and that they collated reports of deaths from more sources.

According to the pro-opposition Syrian Network for Human Rights, 227,413 civilians had been killed between March 2011 and March 2022.

According to the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 160,681 civilians had been killed between March 2011 and March 2022. This number does not include an estimated 47,000 civilians killed in government prisons.

According to the Violations Documentation Center in Syria, 131,750 civilians had been killed until June 2020.

According to the Statista Research Department, almost 207,000 civilians had been killed by November 2020, including about 25,000 children.

The non-Syrian militiamen fatalities figure includes: over 2,000 Afghans, at least 1,308 Iraqi Shia militiamen, 561-620 Iranians, 158 Pakistanis, one Lebanese member of the SCNP, one member of the Lebanese Amal Movement and a Saudi Shiite fighter. Other sources put the overall number of killed Iranian-lead forces, which also includes the Afghan and Pakistani militias, at between 2,500 and 3,500 by the end of August 2017. Also, 1,858 Palestinian militiamen have been killed, according to the PFLP-GC, and these include: 1,100 Liwa Al-Quds fighters, 400 PFLP-GC members, 285 members of the PLA, 42 who belonged to Fatah al-Intifada, 11 PPSF members, 10 Al Saeka Brigade fighters and 10 Free Palestine Movement members. Additionally, the Action Group For Palestinians of Syria reported 21 Galilee Forces fighters had been killed and put the number of dead Free Palestine Movement members higher at 24. 17 PLA soldiers were also missing.

Between October 2015 and December 2017, it was reported that 150-200 Russian security contractors had been killed. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 266 Russian soldiers and mercenaries were killed until mid-March 2022, whom it includes in the death toll of other non-Syrian fighters.

In addition, 1,000 civilian government officials were also killed by November 2012.

Due to the main opposition monitor SOHR's policy early in the conflict of counting rebel fighters that were not defectors as civilians, a comprehensive number of rebels killed in the conflict, thus far, has not been ascertained. In late November 2012, SOHR estimated that at least 10,000 rebels had been killed, but noted the possibility of the figure being higher because the rebels, like the government, were lying about how many of their forces had died to make it look like they were winning. In March 2013, SOHR stated that the actual number of killed rebels and government forces could be double the number they were already able to document.

There have been 72,272 foreign rebel, ISIL and SDF fighters, at least 455 anti-government suicide bombers and 246 rebel child soldiers that have been killed in the conflict. 936 of the killed foreigners were in the SDF, mostly Kurds from parts of Kurdistan outside Syrian Kurdistan. More than 3,200 members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) also died while fighting alongside the SDF.

9,936 foreign opposition fighters were killed by late December 2013, according to the Jihadist Salafist Movement in Jordan, with the nationalities being as follows: 1,902 Tunisians, 1,807 Libyans, 1,432 Iraqis, 828 Lebanese, 821 Egyptians, 800 Palestinians, 714 Saudis, 571 Yemenis, 412 Moroccans, 274 Algerians, 202 Jordanians, 91 Omanis, 71 Kuwaitis, 42 Somalis, 30 Albanians and Caucasians, 21 Bahrainis, 9 Emiratis, 8 Qataris, 3 Sudanese and 1 Mauritanian. The London-based European Centre for Syria Research put the number of Saudis killed even higher at 729 a month earlier in November 2013, out of 6,113 foreign fighters reported killed by then. The jihadist movement updated the number of Jordanians killed by late May 2014 to 342, although they put the figure in late October at over 250. According to another estimate, the Jordanian toll was at least 500 by July 2016.

According to Abu Omar al-Shishani, the Chechen ISIL commander, 500 militants from the Caucasus had been killed by mid-January 2014 since the start of the war. Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic, stated in mid-November 2015, that 200 Chechens had died.

According to a report by a Syrian military research center, as of September 2014: 3,872 Saudi, 3,691 Chechen and 2,904 Lebanese fighters had been killed. Another 2,689 Saudi fighters were missing.

525-605 foreign soldiers have been killed during the conflict, mostly by military involvement from their countries and in the border areas with Syria.

16 servicemen killed
On 2 March 2013, one Iraqi soldier was killed during clashes between Syrian rebels and government forces at a Syrian-Iraqi border crossing.[148] On 4 March 2013, 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed by unknown gunmen near the border with Syria while they were transporting 65 Syrian soldiers and government officials back to their country after they had retreated to Iraq a few days earlier. 48 of the Syrians were also killed in the attack.[149][150] On 9 June 2013, Syrian rebels attacked a southern Iraqi border post, killing one Iraqi guard and wounding two.[151] On 14 July 2013, another attack by fighters from the Syrian side of the border left one Iraqi policeman dead and five others wounded.[152]

8 servicemen killed
A Jordanian soldier was killed in clashes with armed militants who were attempting to cross the border from Jordan into Syria on 22 October 2012.[153] On 3 January 2015, ISIL burned a Jordanian military pilot alive in a metal cage. The pilot was captured after his airplane crashed near Raqqa while conducting air-strikes.[154] Six Jordanian soldiers were killed by a car-bomb blast near the Syrian refugee camp of al-Rukban on 21 June 2016.[155]

60 servicemen killed
On 1 February 2013, two Lebanese soldiers were killed, along with 1-2 militants, and six were wounded in clashes near the Syrian border which started after an attempt by the military to arrest an anti-Assad rebel commander, who was also killed.[156][157][158] On 28 May 2013, three Lebanese soldiers were killed in an attack on their checkpoint near the border town of Arsal by unknown militants who then fled over the border into Syria.[159] On 29 March 2014, three soldiers were killed and four wounded in a suicide bomb attack on their checkpoint near Arsal.[160] 20 soldiers were killed during the Battle of Arsal against Syrian and other foreign jihadists and a further 13 were captured and subsequently executed. On 19 September, two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near Arsal.[161] On 2 December, six soldiers were killed and one wounded in an ambush by unknown gunmen in the Tal Hamra area of Ras Baalbek, near the border with Syria.[162] On 23 January 2015, eight soldiers were killed and 22 wounded near Ras Baalbek after their outpost near the border was attacked by ISIL. The fighting also left more than 40 militants dead.[163] Three soldiers were also killed during an offensive against ISIL in the border area in August 2017.[164]

139-162 servicemen killed

Following the start of Russia's intervention in Syria against rebel and ISIL forces at the end of September 2015, 116 soldiers had died by 23 February 2019. Among them, was a Russian military co-pilot who was killed when his Su-24 military plane was shot down near the Turkish-Syrian border by the Turkish military on 24 November 2015. His pilot was later recovered alive and well by Russian and Syrian special forces. Additionally, a Russian marine was killed when his military rescue helicopter was shot down by rebels while searching for the downed plane's pilots. Almost half of the deaths were attributed to the crash of an An-26 on approach to Khmeimim air base in Latakia, and the accidental shooting down of a reconnaissance plane by Syrian air-defenses. Between 15 and 18 January 2020, 4 Russian soldiers were killed by jihadist groups in the eastern countryside of Idlib. On 18 August 2020, Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Gladkikh was killed by an improvised explosive device planted on a side road near Deir ez-Zor. Two soldiers were killed in 2021, in improvised explosive device attacks on their patrols.

287-344 servicemen killed

Two members of the Turkish Air Force were killed when their F-4 Phantom II military jet was shot down near the Turkish-Syrian border by the Syrian Army on 22 June 2012. On 2 May 2013, one Turkish border guard policeman was killed in a clash with smugglers or rebel fighters on the border between Turkey and Syria. According to the opposition, two rebels were killed as well. Throughout 2014, seven soldiers and a policeman were killed along the border with Syria in shootouts with foreign jihadists, Kurdish fighters and other unknown gunmen. On 22 February 2015, a soldier was killed in an accident during a military incursion into Syria to evacuate Turkish troops at the Tomb of Suleyman Shah. Later, in two incidents in July and September, two soldiers were killed and five wounded by cross-border fire from ISIL territory in Syria. On 15 February 2016, a soldier died at the border during clashes against human smugglers that tried to cross the border illegally. Two Turkish soldiers died in a suicide bombing at a Syrian border crossing in mid-August.

Following the start of Turkey's ground incursion into Syria against ISIL and Kurdish forces in late August 2016, 72 soldiers had died by 29 March 2017. 61-96 more died as result of Turkey's second large incursion between 2018 and 2019, and 79-93 were killed in Idlib during the Turkish military operation that began in February 2018. Another 16 Turkish soldiers died during Turkey's third incursion in clashes against the SDF. Seventeen more soldiers also died in 2019 and 2022, in the areas of Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch while 27-35 soldiers died in the area of Operation Peace Spring between January 2020 and January 2022.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 238 Turkish soldiers died in Syria by 15 March 2022.

1 serviceman killed
The Élysée Palace announced in September 2017 that a French servicemen of the 13th regiment of paratroopers died in the Levant region during Operation Chammal. It was not known where the precise location of the soldier's death.[193]

1 serviceman killed
A British soldier, named as Sgt Matt Tunroe of the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment died on 30 March 2018 in Manbij. This was initially reported as an IED explosion from which a U.S. soldier had also been killed from.[194] However, the Ministry of Defence later clarified it was a case of friendly fire, caused by the accidental detonation of explosives carried by another coalition soldier.[195]

10 servicemen killed
A U.S. pilot was killed on 30 November 2014, when his F-16 fighter aircraft crashed in Jordan.[196] Also, a U.S. special forces member died due to a IED explosion.[197] Two other service members died due to non-combat causes in northern Syria in 2017.[198] A US serviceman died on 30 March 2018 by an IED explosion in Manbij.[194] Four Americans, including two soldiers, were killed by a bombing in Manbij city on 16 January 2019.[199][200] One American soldier was killed on 28 April 2019,[201] possibly due to Turkish shelling.[202] Another US soldier died in Syria on January 24, 2020, following a rollover crash in Deir ez-Zor province.[203] On 22 July 2020, a US serviceman died in a mishap[204] involving a vehicle overturn in Al-Hasakah.[205]

The SOHR considers the following figures on ISIL, al-Nusra and other rebel fatalities to be higher due to the groups' efforts to hide their losses.

According to the SOHR, Russian airstrikes in Syria killed 20,697 people, of whom 5,823 were ISIL fighters, 6,210 militants from the Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and other rebel forces, 8,661 civilians and at least five Turkish soldiers. The air strikes occurred in the period between 30 September 2015 and 30 March 2021. The New York Times accused the Russian air force of specifically focusing on attacking civilian hospitals and other medical facilities, including hospitals on so-called "deconfliction list".

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, since the start of Russia's aerial campaign in Syria and by 20 October 2018, the Russian Air Force killed more than 87,500 rebels and ISIL fighters.

According to the SOHR, 119 people were killed during Israeli air attacks in Syria between January and November 3, 2021, including: 38 Syrian soldiers and militiamen, 24 Iraqi militiamen, 17 Afghan militiamen, five Pakistani militiamen, 21 other pro-Iranian foreign militiamen and five civilians.

A February 2015 joint report by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Syrian American Medical Society asserted that "Syria is the most dangerous place in the world to be a doctor". Roughly half (an estimated 15,000) of Syrian doctors fled the country. The government passed a law in 2012 making it illegal to render medical aid to anyone suspected to be an opposition member and Amnesty International found that doctors and medical staff also took part in torture of patients.

Physicians for Human Rights has been tracking the medical personnel deaths in Syria, though they state that "these numbers are conservative given the difficulties in reporting during a war." As of the end of September 2015, the number of medical workers killed in the Syrian civil war totaled 679. In March 2017, the number of killed medical personnel was updated to more than 800. 723 of these deaths were attributable to the Syrian government, while 72 were killed by ISIL or rebel groups, one by Kurdish forces, and 13 by unidentified forces. Towards the end of May 2020, the SNHR put the death toll at 855 medical personnel, of which 669 were killed by government forces, 68 by the Russian military, 40 by ISIL, and 36 by the rebels.

Médecins Sans Frontières has reported that suppliers in Syria refuse to sell essential medical supplies such as gauze and surgical threads to doctors due to government intimidation, with this being a particular problem for besieged areas.

1. ^ Khalifa, Mustafa (2013), "The impossible partition of Syria", Arab Reform Initiative: 3-5, archived from the original on 2016-10-09, Arabs constitute the major ethnic group in Syria, making up between 80 and 85% of the population.
Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 10% of the Syrian population and distributed among four regions ... with a Yazidi minority that numbers around 40,000 ...
Turkmen are the third largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 4-5% of the population. Some estimations indicate that they are the second biggest group, outnumbering Kurds, drawing on the fact that Turkmen are divided into two groups: the rural Turkmen who make up 30% of the Turkmen in Syria and who have kept their mother tongue, and the urban Turkmen who have become Arabised and no longer speak their mother language ...
Assyrians are the fourth largest ethnic group in Syria. They represent the original and oldest inhabitants of Syria, today making up around 3-4% of the Syrian population ...
Circassians are the fifth largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 1.5% of the population ...
Armenians are sixth largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 1% of the population ...
There are also a small number of other ethnic groups in Syria, including Greeks, Persians, Albanians, Bosnian, Pashtuns, Russians and Azeri people ...

2. ^ Narwani, Sharmine (28 February 2012). "Questioning the Syrian "Casualty List"". Al-Akhbar. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015.

3. ^
Khamenei Praises Afghans Recruited By IRGC And Killed In Syria War Archived 2019-03-30 at the Wayback Machine

4. 500 killed (2014-Sep. 2016; per Israel),^ [14] 120 killed (Oct. 2016-March 2019; per Ali Alfoneh),[15][16] total of 620 reported killed

5. 1 bomber in 2011,^ [17] 103 bombers in 2012-13,[18] 41 bombings in 2014,[19] 61 bombers in 2015 (download and see full list),[20] 55 bombings in 2016,[21] 70 bombers in 2017 (download and see full list),[22] 63 bombers in 2018 (download and see full list),[23] 49 bombers in 2019 (download and see full list),[24] 12 bombers in Jan.-Feb. 2020,[25] total of at least 455 suicide bombers killed

6. ^ "At least 250 Jordanian jihadists killed in Syria since 2011". Jordan Times. Archived from the original on 2014-10-29.

7. 900 went to Syria and Iraq, of which 300 were killed in Iraq and 280 were arrested or stripped of citizenship,^ [26] with most of the remainder (320) killed in Syria [27]

8. ^ "List of Belgian foreign fighters reportedly killed in Syria or Iraq". Pieter Van Ostaeyen.
Citizenship and Ancestry of Belgian Foreign Fighters Archived 2019-04-19 at the Wayback Machine

9. 95 ISIL members killed (3 in Iraq),^ [35] Archived 2016-08-18 at the Wayback Machine 3 YPG members killed,[36] Archived 2019-05-27 at the Wayback Machine total of 95 reported killed in Syria

10. ^ "Two American children 'trapped in last ISIS village', father says". The Independent. March 5, 2019. Archived from the original on March 5, 2019.

11. ^
M'sian IS leader and former rock drummer killed in Syria in March Archived 2019-11-13 at the Wayback Machine

12. ^ Anthony Bond (24 January 2015). "Haruna Yukawa ISIS beheading: Recap after terror group 'executes Japanese hostage'". mirror. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018.

13. ^ Iraqi border guard killed in Syria violence spillover 2013-07-13

14. ^ Russian major general killed in explosion in Syria
Russian major general killed in roadside bomb in Syria's Deir ez-Zor

15. 54 killed (20 Jan.-6 July 2018),^ [37] 1 killed (13 Dec. 2018),[38] 1 killed (18 Feb. 2019),[39] 1 killed (31 March 2019),[40] 1 killed (4 May 2019),[41] 1 killed (26 June 2019),[42] 2 killed (11 Oct. 2019),[43] total of 61 reported killed

16. 93 killed (20 Jan. 2018-26 June 2019),^ [44] 1 killed (5 Aug. 2019),[45] 2 killed (11 Oct. 2019),[46] total of 96 reported killed

17. 1 killed (6 Feb. 2018),^ [47] 1 killed (6 April 2019),[48] 1 killed (28 June 2019),[49] 58 killed (3 Feb.-5 March 2020; per Turkish President),[50][51] 72 killed (3 Feb.-5 March 2020; per SOHR),[52][53][54] 3 killed (18-19 March 2020), [55] 1 killed (27 May 2020),[56] 1 killed (5 June 2020),[57] 1 killed (12 June 2020),[58] 1 killed (6 Sep. 2020),[59] 1 killed (9 Sep. 2020),[60] 10 killed (2021),[61][62] total of 79-93 reported killed

18. ^ "Bakan Akar: Yasaklanan hiçbir mühimmatı veya kimyasal silahı kullanmadık". aa.com.tr.
Turkish soldier killed by accident in N Syria
2 soldiers killed in YPG attack in SE Turkey
2 Turkish soldiers martyred in terrorist attacks

19. ^ Aleppo | Three Turkish soldiers killed in attack on Turkish vehicle in Marea city, while Kurdish forces clash with Ankara-backed factions on frontlines

20. ^ Kurdish bombardment | Turkish soldier killed in north-western Aleppo

21. 4-7 killed (9 Jan. 2020),^ [63][64] 3 killed (16 Jan. 2020),[65] 1 killed (8 Feb. 2020),[66] 1-4 killed (12-14 March 2020),[67][68] 1 killed (25 March 2020),[69] 1 killed (3 Aug. 2020),[70] 2 killed (13 Nov. 2020),[71] 1 killed (3 Dec. 2020),[72] 2-4 killed (10 Dec. 2020),[73] 7 killed (2021),[74] 1 killed (24 Nov. 2021),[75] 3 killed (8 Jan. 2022),[76] 1 killed (3 Feb. 2022),[77] total of 28-36 reported killed.

22. ^ ""التحالف الدولي" في عام 2020: عشرات الحملات الأمنية برفقة قسد وضخ متواصل للتعزيزات واستهدافات للإيرانيين والجهاديين.. وعام جديد بدون إجابة حول مصير المختطفين من قبل "الدولة الإسلامية"". SOHR. October 2, 2019.

23. ^ Hill, Evan; Triebert, Christiaan (2019-10-13). "12 Hours. 4 Syrian Hospitals Bombed. One Culprit: Russia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2019-10-13.

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Casualties of the Syrian civil war - Wikipedia

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Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Syrian Civil War , by opposition activist groups, vary between 499,657 and about 610,000 as of March 2022. On 23 April 2016, the United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria put out an estimate of 400,000 that had died in the war.

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GEOGRAPHY

S yria (Official name: Syrian Arab Republic; Arabic pronunciation: Suriyya) lies between Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea on the west, Jordan on the south, Turkey on the north, and Iraq on the east. It has an area of approximately 185,180 sq km, or 71,498 sq miles which equates to an area slightly larger than North Dakota. The climate is hot and dry in the summers, and mild and rainy in the winters, when snow occasionally falls in the capital city Damascus. Most of the country is semiarid desert, with summer temperatures reaching into the high 90s Fahrenheit and winter temperatures in the 50s Fahrenheit. There are mountains in the western part of the country.

The northeast of the country is rich with natural resources which include petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, and gypsum. Unfortunately, there is a growing problem of deforestation, desertification and water pollution due to poor governmental irrigation practices, climate change, and war. The Syrian government established an environmental ministry to address these problems in 2009, but the ministry lacks the funding and political power to implement meaningful change in policy.

HISTORY & GOVERNMENT

Syria, like other Levantine states, is located in the heart of what is commonly referred to as the cradle of civilization. This is the area where the first non-nomadic communities were established. In the third millennium BCE, it was the site of the sprawling Ebla civilization, which is thought to have developed one of the oldest written languages. Ebla had been a major economic center that traded with ancient cities such as Byblos, Damascus, and Ur. The Phoenicians, Sumerians, Hittites, and other various ancient empires later conquered the area throughout the first millennium BCE. The city of Antioch (modern day Antakya) became one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire around 13 CE. Around this time, Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria expanded the city of Palmyra, which today is one of Syria's most popular tourist attractions. Syria became part of the Islamic Umayyad Empire in 640 CE. It prospered under Umayyad rule throughout the 7th century, at which time the capital of the empire moved to Damascus. After the fall of the Umayyad dynasty, the territory passed through Abbasid, Mongol, Mamluk, and Ottoman hands.

During World War I, the Ottomans joined the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria. The Allied Powers (France, Britain, Russia, and the United States) supported the Arab uprisings throughout the Ottoman Empire that would ultimately lead to its weakening and dissolution. In 1915, British parliamentarian, Sir Mark Sykes, and a French diplomat, Francois Georges-Picot, looking toward a collapsed Ottoman Empire, carved up the Middle East into hypothetical spheres of influence under either British or French control. The Sykes-Picot agreement, drafted in secret unbeknownst to other world leaders, would give the northern part of the Middle East, consisting of Christian enclaves in Syria and Lebanon to France, while Great Britain would have authority over southern territory including Palestine and Iraq.

Immediately after World War I, a member of the Hashemite Dynasty, Faisal I, established the independent Arab Kingdom of Syria, of which he was the short-lived king. He would later become the king of Iraq from August 1921 to 1933. This Arab Kingdom of Syria did not last long as the French soon annexed the region under the French mandate as outlined in Sykes-Picot. From the mid 1920s to 1940, Syrians struggled for control through uprisings and attempts of self-governance all of which were stopped by French forces. When France fell to Nazi Germany during World War II, a coalition of British and Free French soldiers pushed the Germans and Vichy government (a puppet French government set up by the Nazis) out of Syria in 1941. Subsequently, the Free French declared an end to its mandate in Syria. By the end of World War II, however, the French forces had not ceded control of Syria to local authorities. After public protests and mounting pressure from the international community, the last French troops left in April 1946 and Syria gained its independence.

With the final departure of the British from Palestine in 1948 and the subsequent formation of Israel, Syria joined the Arab alliance in the war against Israel. Israel stopped the invading armies and the Syrian army retreated to its previous borders. Syria experienced political instability through military coups in 1949, 1954, 1961, 1963, and 1966. The last coup marked the rise of the Assad family as Hafez al-Assad became Defense Minister. In 1967, Syria and Jordan joined the Six Day War following a preemptive Israeli strike against Egypt. In the last days of the war, Israel launched an invasion into the Syrian Golan Heights, and has occupied this territory since. Eventually, Syria and Israel signed a disengagement agreement in 1974.

After assuming power in 1970 through Syria's final coup, Hafez al-Assad established the de facto rule of the Assad family in Syria. During Assad's rule, Syria intervened militarily in the Lebanese civil war in 1976 and troops remained throughout Lebanon until the early 2000s. Hafez al-Assad maintained harsh authoritarian rule over Syria until his death in 2000. His son, Bashar al-Assad, took power that same year and has remained in office since. He was expected to usher in economic liberalization and modernization to the country; however, after his first few years in office Bashar al-Assad reverted to his father's tactics of brutality and repression.

Inspired by a wave of demonstrations now known as the Arab Spring, anti-government protests began within Syria in March 2011. The military's willingness to use violence to suppress the demonstrations further enraged the population and protests grew across the country. By the summer of 2011, armed revolutionary groups had formed to combat government forces. The coalition of revolutionaries formed the Syrian National Council, which was replaced by the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in 2012 and received international recognition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. The United States and many European countries began imposing sanctions against Assad and his regime. However, the U.N. was unable to enact sanctions or any form of military intervention because of Russia and China's veto power; Russia is an ally of Syria and China opposed the idea of an international body infringing upon a country's sovereignty. Peace talks continued to fail as Assad pulled out of agreements established by the Arab League and the United Nations. Multiple countries began providing non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels but were hesitant to provide military equipment in fear of inadvertently arming extremists groups such as the large al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nursrah Front.

By late 2012, the revolution had clearly turned into a civil war. Several countries, as well as non-state actors, began arming the rebels such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, while Shia allies - Hezbollah and Iran - have provided support to Assad. In August 2013, Assad crossed what president Obama had called a "red line" by using chemical weapons against opposition and civilian populations, which Assad denied. UN inspectors confirmed that chemical weapons had been used and intelligence assets strongly believed they had been used by government forces. Several western countries began considering military strikes; however, a vote failed in both the British parliament and the American congress to approve any military action. In a media statement, Secretary of State John Kerry made a remark that if Syria hands over its chemical weapon stockpile to the international community, the U.S. would no longer consider military options. This comment led to negotiations facilitated by Russia in which Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons.

In 2013, the Free Syrian Army, the moderate revolutionary force favored by the international community, increasingly became eclipsed by radical Islamic groups. The main groups were al-Nusrah Front, a faction of al-Qaeda, and the growing Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (IS also known as ISIS or ISIL) led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. While IS had initially been closely affiliated with al-Qaeda dating back to the group's origin in 2003, the Islamic State's willingness to kill large amounts of civilian populations and differing end goals caused the two groups to split. IS began to bring other revolutionary groups under its control through alliances or force. During the summer of 2014, IS forces swept through northern Iraq gaining control of key cities and oil resources. IS had successfully established a large region of control, declared Baghdadi the caliph (leader), and designated Raqqa, Syria its capital city. The group has become infamous for mass executions of what it considers to be apostate civilians and POWs as well as the public beheadings of western aid workers and reporters in the region. A large coalition of Western and Middle Eastern countries has formed to combat IS. The main ground forces - Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi military, Syrian military (non-state forces), and revolutionary militias - receive air and arms support from the coalition. The rise of the Islamic State has shifted most of the international focus away from Assad and onto combating this extremist group. According to UNHCR, there are currently 3,727,642 registered Syrian refugees as a result of the civil war. However, the number of actual refugees is likely higher as already struggling countries are limiting entrance of refugees and Syrians are now turning to smugglers to escape the violence.

Information gathered from:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/578856/Syria
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703995
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

INTERNATIONAL & REGIONAL ISSUES

The area known as the Golan Heights remains controlled by the Israeli military with an almost 1,000-strong UN Disengagement Observer Force patrolling a buffer zone since 1964. Lacking a treaty or other documentation describing the boundary, portions of the Lebanon-Syria border are unclear, with several sections in dispute. Since 2000, Lebanon has claimed the Shab'a Farms in the Golan Heights. A 2004 agreement and pending demarcation are attempting to settle a border dispute with Jordan. Syria holds over 486,000 Palestinian refugees and roughly 87,000 from Iraq. These refugees mostly reside within designated refugee camps. Since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, more than one million Syrians remain displaced within their own country in addition to the Palestinian and Iraqi refugees. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, many refugees of all nationalities in Syria are beginning to flee to neighboring Turkey (1.5 million), Lebanon (1.16 million), Jordan (.62 million), and Iraq (235,000), further escalating regional tensions and straining resources of already struggling host countries. Many of the refugees have been subjected to nearly unlivable conditions, slave like labor, and sex trafficking.

Information gathered from:
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html

SOCIETY

In 2011, the population of Syria stood at approximately 23 million. According to the last CIA World Factbook population update on Syria, there were about 17,951,639 people living in the country in 2014. One source in September 2015 made an estimate of 16.6 million; however, mass migration due to over five years of civil war preclude accurate updates to that figure.

The population is very young with over 50% of the population under the age of 25, although civil war has dropped the population growth rate from 2% to -09.73%. Approximately 56% of the population lives in the major cities with a 3% rate of urbanization. Though Arabic remains the official language, about 10% of the population also speaks Kurdish, Armenian, or Aramaic. English and French are somewhat understood in the major cities.

The vast majority of Syrians are Arabs (90%). The remaining Syrians are comprised of a mix of Kurds (9%) and Armenians, Greeks, and others.

Population of Syria

Mix of Kurds-Armenians-Greeks-Others 10%

Syria has a literacy rate of approximately 84% of the population. This percentage is higher among men at 90.3% and lower for women at 77.7%. Education is free and obligatory up to 9th grade for all citizens. At the end of high school students must take the difficult baccalaureate exam to determine what university and specialization they will go into. Syria has five state universities and eleven private universities, and the top two for overall educational value are the University of Damascus and the University of Aleppo.

RELIGION

The majority of the population is Muslim with Sunnis accounting for about 74%. The remaining population is a mix of Shia sects, predominantly Alawite at 13%. The Druze population accounts for roughly 3% of the population. The Christian minorities are divided into several groups: Antiochian Orthodox, Catholic, Syria Orthodox, and Nestorian Assyrians. There is a dwindling Jewish community, mostly confined to Damascus after Aleppo's Jews escaped to Israel in 2015. Syria's government was tolerant of other religions, providing constitutional protection to the free practice and expression of religion throughout the country. Competing non-state militant groups, however, have deliberately targeted, abused and killed Muslims they consider apostates as well as several religious minority groups.

The above information was gathered from the CIA World Factbook entry on Syria and current percentages are uncertain.

CULTURE

Arts

Syria, as part of the Cradle of Civilization, hosted countless peoples and cultures whose legacies helped shape modern Syrian character and identity. A number of museum collections contained precious relics and artwork from pre-Islamic and Islamic times. Two of the most impressive museums included the National Museum in Damascus and the Aleppo Museum. The most popular part of the National Museum is the reconstruction of the 2nd century CE Dura-Europos synagogue, while the Aleppo Museum is famous for its grand entrance featuring a female sphinx from the Iron Age Neo-Hittite settlement of Tell Halaf (9th century BCE). Sadly, may museums have been looted and numerous historic sites such as the ancient city of Palmyra have been destroyed during the civil war. At the Aleppo Museum, because of the difficulty of connecting with preservation organizations for assistance, curators resorted to using sandbags to protect the sphinx and other outdoor treasures in 2014.

Much of Syria's contemporary art mixes traditional Islamic themes and techniques with Western influences. The Creative Syria project was established by the Syrian Culture, Arts, and History Center, and was established to help promote prominent Syrian artists. The project showcases top calligraphers such as Mohamed Kanou, photographers like Issa Touma, and painters like Sara Shamma and Boutros Almaari. The civil war has forced many contemporary artists and musicians out of the country, and some of them now reside in nearby Lebanon, continuing to produce works of art detailing the Syrian struggle.

Sites

Syria has an impressive cultural heritage. Extensive archaeological activity in the area has revealed countless sites dating back to the third millennium BCE and to more recent Islamic times. Some of the most ancient cities include Ebla, Ugarit, and Mari dating back to the Bronze Age (3600-1200 BCE). From the Greek and Roman periods, Palmyra, Apamea, and Bosra are by far the most famous. Clashes between the Islamic State and opposition forces have destroyed numerous ancient cities in both Syria and Iraq. According to a 2014 New York Times article about the civil war's impact on Syrian culture, "Officials at Unesco, the United Nations agency that works to protect historic places, have classified as endangered all six of Syria's World Heritage sites, including Palmyra." Continued fighting, however, has prevented UNESCO from inspecting the damage in person.

Syria is also known for its group of Crusader castles built along the coastline, especially the Krak des Chevaliers which remains mostly intact. Interestingly, T.E. Lawrence visited and wrote his thesis about these medieval castles before he was known throughout the world as Lawrence of Arabia. Many of these locations were popular tourist destinations prior to the Syrian Civil War. Since 2011, tourism has completely ceased in Syria and most nations are imposing heavy travel restrictions to the war-torn country.

The Umayyads greatly shaped the city of Damascus. The old city centers around the Umayyad Mosque, and, as one of the earliest mosques in the world, it is considered an Islamic holy site. Its architecture was used as a prototype for the construction of other mosques in the region.

Music

Folk music permeates Syrian culture and is often used to celebrate weddings or the birth of a child. The typical folk music style is called muwashshhaat. This style features classical Arabic poetry which is sung while playing instruments like the oud (lute), kamenjah (spike fiddle), and daf (tambourine). This is sometimes accompanied by dabkeh, a popular line dance during which each dancer stomps his feet in rhythmic steps.

Syrian music is sometimes played in tandem with displays from the region's Sufi Islamic religious orders. The Whirling Dervishes, a popular order of Sufi Islam in the Levant region, are known for performing fast spinning dances while wearing long, white robes. These groups often perform in public squares and are a popular exhibit for tourists.

Syria has a number of pop stars, residing both in the country and abroad such as George Wassouf and Bashar Moussa. Wassouf played for his first wedding party at the age of 12, and has released over 30 albums to date. The Syrian Civil War has had an impact on the dynamic of Syrian music as both sides have begun using music to champion their cause. The Syrian government has utilized patriotic songs, such as, "I am Syrian, God is on my side." On the opposition side, a previously unknown musician named Hamwee Ibrahim Qashoosh released a song called "Yalla irhal ya Bashar" ("Get Out, Bashar"). The song mixes traditional dabkeh music with verses denouncing the Syrian government. The link below, "Syria's Music Wars", looks more closely at this trend.

Sports

Soccer, swimming, and tennis are very popular in Syria. Soccer is particularly popular and children can often be seen playing it in streets and parks. The Syrian national team, the Red Eagles, has participated in several international competitions; however, the team has had little success. The Red Eagles have competed in five Asian Cups, but each time failed to advance past the quarterfinals round. Syria has never made it to the FIFA World Cup finals, only reaching the final qualifying round in 1986, and losing to Iraq.

Syria has never competed in the Winter Olympic Games, but has sent athletes to every Summer Games since 1976. Syria has won an Olympic silver medal for wrestling in 1984 and a bronze medal for boxing in 2004. During the Atlanta games in 1996, female athlete Ghada Shouaa won the gold medal in the Heptathlon. 2 Syrian swimmers, Yusra Mardini and Rami Anis, were selected as part of a 10 member refugee team to compete at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.

LATEST NEWS & COMMENTARY ON SYRIA

SYRIAN NEWS OUTLETS

Harvard Divinity School Religious Literacy Project

Syria country profile includes: Historical Legacies, The Colonial Era (1918-1943), Independence & Modern Political Rule (1943-Present), Economic Policies & Ideologies, Religion, Political & Legal Structures, Relations with Other Nation-States and Glossary of Terms

BBC News Syria History Timeline

* Due to the ongoing conflict in Syria and the continued migration of its population, it is difficult to obtain accurate information on the number of people living in the country. The figure cited is from an article from The Economist from September 2015. We encourage readers to look at additional sources and to consider the challenge of measuring populations under such circumstances.

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Syria (Official name: Syrian Arab Republic; Arabic pronunciation: Suriyya) lies between Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea on the west, Jordan on the south, Turkey on the north, and Iraq on the east. It has an area of approximately 185,180 sq km, or 71,498 sq miles which equates to an area slightly larger than North Dakota.