Syrian Civil War

The Syrian Civil War began in 2011 out of peaceful protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, part of the wider wave of Arab Spring uprisings, before escalating into a full armed conflict involving the Syrian government, a fragmented array of rebel and Islamist factions, the jihadist group calling itself the Islamic State, and Kurdish-led forces in the country's northeast. Outside powers took sides extensively, with Russia and Iran backing the Assad government and Turkey, Gulf states and, at various points, the United States supporting opposition or Kurdish factions, making the war one of the defining proxy conflicts of the era and driving one of the largest refugee crises of the twenty-first century. After more than a decade of grinding conflict, a rapid rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham swept out of the northwest in late November 2024 and captured Damascus within days, forcing Assad to flee the country in December 2024 and ending more than five decades of his family's rule.