Civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, 13 years ago now, amid a wave of protests and uprisings in most of the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring
A Syrian flag flies in front of the foundation of a building
Last Friday, March 15, marked the 13th anniversary of that fateful day, on which began a chain of events that would lead to a fratricidal war, from which there is still no conclusion on the horizon. Many things have happened since then, but Syria seems to have remained stuck in a violence that, although it has partially subsided in recent years, is still the norm in a country divided into at least four major factions.
SYRIA BEFORE THE WAR
Syria was ruled for 30 years by Hafez al-Asad, who came to power in 1970 through a coup d'état and consolidated his position as leader of the Arab socialist Baath party. After assuming power, Hafez purged the party of all his political rivals and gave the positions of responsibility to close relatives and people he trusted; thus, the reins of the Baath party and the security forces were left in the hands of the Asad family (Alawite, in a mostly Sunni country) and trusted political and military advisors.
Hafez's autocracy did not tolerate any form of political dissent, and harshly repressed political groups and individuals who challenged the regime. The intelligence services, known as Mukhabarat, have been instrumental in ensuring the continuity of the regime by eradicating any dissent, and often through blatant human rights violations. In the 1970s, the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocated regime change and the establishment of an Islamic state, was brutally suppressed with what became known as the Hama massacre in February 1982, which claimed approximately 20,000 victims.
In June 2000, President Hafez al-Asad passed away, leaving the inheritance of power in the country to his son, the current President of Syria, Bashar al-Asad. Bashar assumed the leadership of the Baath party promising political and economic reforms. This period became known as the "Damascus Spring". Bashar's promises never materialized and the few timid reforms that were implemented were reversed, thus destroying all hopes that under Bashar's rule, Syria would move from an autocracy to a modern democratic state.
THE 2011 PROTESTS
On March 6, 2011, a group of teenagers drew anti-regime graffiti on a wall in Dara, a city in southern Syria. For this, they were arrested and their detention sparked massive demonstrations in the city and clashes with government forces. Fire was opened on civilians and protests escalated calling for the fall of the regime and spread to Damascus and then across the country in a matter of months. The protesters were inspired by the Arab Spring and the activism taking place in the region, where Egyptians, Tunisians, Yemenis and Libyans were mobilizing against their respective political regimes.
Demonstrators in the Syrian town of Banias
The regime's response was to intensify repression and in May 2011, tanks rolled into the cities of Homs, Dara and parts of Damascus, provoking international condemnation for the excessive use of military force against demonstrators. The city of Dara became one of the anti-regime epicenters fomenting anti-regime sentiment across the country.
In July 2011, protests erupted in Hama, which once again became the focal point of opposition to the Baath regime, with thousands taking to the streets calling for al-Asad's resignation and facing brutal repression.
FROM PROTESTS TO CIVIL WAR
What began as peaceful protests, resulted in protesters beginning to organize and arm themselves in response to the regime's repression. The first armed opposition movements consisted of a mix of civilians and military deserters who joined the anti-regime movement after witnessing the government's excessive use of force. The first incident of armed rebellion occurred in June 2011 near the Turkish border, where local civilians seized the arsenal of a police station after regime forces opened fire on protesters. When an army unit arrived to suppress the protesters, a part of that unit defected, and together with armed civilians launched a counter-offensive against the security forces. This counter-insurgency was met with a decisive response and by the end of the month, the population, including the insurgents, was forced to flee. This incident was followed by other conflicts such as those that took place, in September 2011, in Homs and Jebel al Zaqiya.
In January 2012, rebels seized several suburbs east of Damascus. Although they were driven out of some of them later that month, the rebels still control some areas on the outskirts of the city. In July 2012 the conflict reached Aleppo: rebel forces penetrated through the east and reached the city center, firing on police and military posts and capturing a significant amount of weapons and ammunition. Aleppo remains divided, with regime forces controlling the west of the city and rebels the east.
As more weapons and ammunition became available to the opposition —taken from weapons depots inside Syria but also acquired from regional and international donors—, hostilities escalated into a zero-sum conflict, with the two sides fighting for their survival. In July 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross already qualified the situation in Syria as an internal armed conflict or civil war.
THE IMPORTANCE OF JIHADISTS IN THE CONFLICT
The Syrian riot began as a secular and peaceful movement against an autocratic regime. However, it progressively transformed into a military conflict with jihadist groups swelling the armed opposition.
The conflict in Syria has several dimensions: class, identity, local and regional alliances, or sectarian and religious divisions. These elements have emerged as fault lines in an increasingly complex conflict. Sectarian rhetoric, employed by the al-Asad regime since the beginning of the revolt and fueled by regional powers, has polarized the conflict and opened a space for jihadists advocating the superiority of Sunnism and violence to impose it.
A group of jihadists in Syria
These groups receive funding from regional governments and non-state donors in an attempt to promote strategic interests, and their assistance has provided these groups with disproportionate influence in the conflict. In parallel, they have recruited a high number of fighters, both Syrian and from other countries. The most significant jihadist groups operating in Syria are:
The al-Nusra Front: al-Nusra Front is an al-Qaeda affiliated group that announced its creation in January 2012. Its goal is to overthrow the al-Asad regime as a stepping stone to the creation of a pan-Islamic state governed by Sharia law. The ranks of the al-Nusra Front contain experienced jihadists who are "versed in various armed conflicts and insurgency strategies." Thus, although their estimated number is 5000, they are recognized as one of the most efficient rebel groups operating in Syria. Of al-Nusra, its presence throughout the country stands out as it is present in 11 of the 13 regions of the country.
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS): In April 2013, the creation of ISIS, a unification of al-Qaeda in Iraq and its Syrian affiliate, the al-Nusra Front , was announced, but denied by the al-Nusra leader himself. Although the number of members is unknown, it is believed to be made up mostly of foreign jihadists. It has grown rapidly as an insurgent group and has its strongholds in Homs, Raqqa, Abu Kamal and along the Turkish-Syrian border. The ISIS is financed by the oil exploitations they control in Iraq and Syria and also through the ransoms they obtain from their kidnapping campaigns.
Islamic Front: In November 2013, seven rebel groups merged to form the Islamic Front, arguably the largest opposition alliance. This new alliance,consisting of Ahrar-al-Shaam and the Suqoor-al-Shaam brigades among other groups, does not include al-Qaeda-associated groups such as ISIS or al-Nusra, but is "explicitly a Syrian Islamist body." Ahrar-al-Shaam is made up of a diversity of conservative Islamic groups and sometimes jihadist groups (it has almost 50 groups), which operate mainly in northern Syria but have a presence throughout the territory. With its insistence on minority rights, its ideological position is not as hardline as that of al-Nusra. The Suqoor-al-Sham brigades are another relevant actor in the opposition movement. It is believed to be funded by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhoodand often employs nationalist rhetoric that distinguishes it from transnational jihadist movements. That two opposition groups have merged under the umbrella of the Islamic Front serves to underscore the importance this new group will have in the opposition.
THE HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES OF CONFLICT
The world is witnessing a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in recent decades. The number of casualties since the beginning of the conflict now exceeds 620,000. Approximately one third of the Syrian population has been forcibly displaced; 5 million Syrians are internally displaced while 2 million are registered refugees in neighboring countries.
The United Nations called in December 2013 for $6.5 billion to help 16 million people, the highest figure in history for a single conflict. However, the donor conference organized in Kuwait has fallen short of that figure; donors have only pledged $2.4 billion, far short of the required figure. In addition, aid agencies and donor organizations are facing enormous difficulties in getting humanitarian aid through, particularly to cities under siege. The situation in refugee camps in neighboring countries is characterized by overcrowding, insecurity and the inability to meet basic needs.
A Syrian soldier during fighting for the liberation of Al Raqa in 2017
Much of the population has fled violence by government forces and, in some cases, rebel militias as well. A recent report by the United Nations Human Rights Council details the scope and depravity of crimes committed in Syria, including summary executions, killings, rape, torture, hostage-taking and other serious human rights violations.
A SYRIA THAT ONLY GETS WORSE
The recent spike in violence began in October with a drone strike on a military academy graduation in the government-controlled city of Homs that killed dozens of people.
Then Syrian government and allied Russian forces launched a bombardment in the opposition-controlled northwest in which well-known and visible hospitals, schools, markets and camps for internally displaced people were hit.
Elsewhere, increasingly frequent Israeli strikes were aimed at Iranian-linked targets in government-controlled parts of Syria, in an offensive that at times also hit civilians. Turkey stepped up its strikes against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, while militiamen from Islamic State group sleeper cells have launched sporadic attacks in different parts of the country.
Aerial view of a town in Idlib destroyed by shelling
Compounding Syria's misery was the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023, which left more than 59,000 dead in Turkey and Syria. Around 6,000 of them died in Syrian territory alone, mainly in the northwest, where most of the 4.5 million inhabitants depend on humanitarian aid to survive.
U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organizations have struggled to fund programs that provide vital aid in Syria, blaming donor fatigue, the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts elsewhere that have erupted in recent years. The UN World Food Program-which estimates that more than 12 million Syrians lack regular access to food-announced in December that it would suspend its main assistance program in Syria in 2024.
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