Syrian Civil War: A Low-Down

Lincoln said, “Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backwards”. Had he been present in today’s world, he may have had a different opinion about Syria.

You may have come across the words ­‘Aleppo’, and ‘Assad’, in recent weeks, all over social media, even if you don’t follow the news closely. All this is a part of the Syrian Civil War. In case you are confused about what’s going on in Syria, here’s a low-down of all the relevant, and important points.

The Timeline

Early 2011. A series of peaceful and non-peaceful protests against governments breaks out across the Middle East like wildfire. The basis for the protests was legitimate as people complained about unemployment, sectarianism, human rights violations, kleptocracy, and authoritarianism. These protests (which initially started in Tunisia) were the first seeds of the Arab Spring, which had varying results and aftermaths in different countries. We’ll focus on Syria, where the revolution has now blown to a full-scale civil war, with international parties involved.

March 2011. Security opens fire at protestors in Daraa, under the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, in an incident regarded as one causing the first deaths of the uprising.

June and July 2011: For the first time, police, and army personnel join the protestors, and choose to fire back. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is formed and is later joined by defected members of Assad’s security forces. The fighting doesn’t stop, rather increases. The uprising now turns into a civil war.

Summer 2012. The fighting spreads to Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, and former commercial capital. Around the time, extremists from in and around Syria join the rebels (comprising of the protestors, and FSA for the most part). These extremists include the newly formed wing of al-Qaeda called the al-Nusra Front, who sure are anti-Assad, but want the establishment of an Islamist State. Keep in mind that a large portion of the rebels still wants the establishment of a reformed, secular, and a democratic state.

The Kurds in the northeastern part of Syria secede to form a Kurdish state, who are also against Assad, due to historical discrimination against the Kurdish people by the Syrian government.

At this point in time, the whole civil war gets a tint of a sectarian war between the two major Islamic sects: the Shias and the Sunnis. The anti-Assad components are mostly Sunnis, while pro-Assad components are mostly Shia. The oil-rich, wealthy states of from the Persian Gulf, predominantly Sunni, start publicly funding the rebels to fight Assad, and send them weapons, via Turkey and Jordan, also Sunni. Whereas Assad receives backing from Iran (Shia), which has been Assad’s biggest supporter throughout. It also mobilizes Hezbollah support to Assad, which is a Lebanese political party and a militant group.

Summer 2013. With Hezbollah support, Assad wins back rebel-held town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border.

August 2013. The Assad regime uses chemical weapons attack civilians in the town of Ghouta, killing thousands. At this point, US prepares itself to get involved. Russia urges Assad to destroy the facilities producing chemical weapons and surrender existing stockpile, to avoid US intervention.

Later in 2013, the first supply of arms and training reaches the Syrian rebels, through a CIA program.

Early 2014. An al-Qaeda affiliate based in Iraq breaks away from the rebels and forms what is now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. We will discuss the differences between the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda affiliated) and the newly formed ISIS later.  For now, it’s sufficient to know the former are still allied with the rebels, and the two factions are against each other.

June 2014. ISIS doesn’t fight Assad but the other belligerents, including the Kurdish and the rebels, carving an Islamic geographic state it calls the Caliphate, capitalizing the power vacuum. That summer, it marches across Syria and seizing territory, having conquered much of western Syria.

September 2014. US begins air strikes on ISIS targets in Syria. It is worth noting that the Pentagon launches its own program to train the rebels, but only those fighting ISIS, not Assad; and this program fizzled out later. At one point, there was a conflict between the rebels backed by the CIA and those backed by the Pentagon.

January 2015. With US support, the Kurdish seize Kobane from the ISIS, handing them their bloodiest defeat ever. Let’s note that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is a multi-ethnic group – comprising mostly of Kurdish people, along with Arabs and Turkmens – wants to establish a secular, democratic state of their own. They are also fighting the FSA, the rebels, ISIS, al-Nusra, and everyone else.

But since then, the US has limited its support to the rebels, who are being handed defeat by literally everyone who’s not on their side.

Fast forward to November 2016. So where does Aleppo come into the picture? Well, it was one of the rebel-held cities, but now with Russian help, the Assad regime and its allies control it (mostly). The rebel-held parts of the city were being shelled by continuous air and cruise missile strikes since end-November, killing civilians. There are sources which indicate pro-Assad forces gunning down civilians. UN called the Aleppo Offensive a “complete meltdown of humanity”. Civilians were live tweeting moments before their deaths, as buildings and bombs came crashing down on them. No evacuation plan was secure until a ceasefire agreement was in place between Turkey and Russia.

Right now, it’s a confusing war with several factions, each with their own, specific interests and everyone is fighting several other factions.

The Belligerents Involved:

(A quick summary)

  1. Assad government. Backed by the Syrian Army, Russia, Iran, the Lebanese political party Hezbollah’s militant wing.
  2. The Rebels. The term is now blurred as it involves several parties including the FSA, which wants the Assad government to be overthrown. Different fractions of the rebels enjoy support from different parties such as the al-Nusra Front, the Islamic Front, and the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar.
  3. Al-Nusra front. Initially, an al-Qaeda group intended to establish an Islamic state but later changed its goal to the overthrowing of Assad. They present themselves as being “moderate” as compared to ISIS. They mainly cooperate with Sunni rebels.
  4. ISIS. They want to establish a hard-line Islamist state (the Caliphate). Every other party mentioned here is against ISIS. They fight on the basis of Islamic sectarian differences, and religious ideologies.
  5. The Syrian Democratic Front, who’s also against everyone else, but they wish for a secular, democratic state, with long-term separatist agendas in mind. Mostly the Kurdish and other minor ethnicities in the north.
  6. The United States. Allied to the opposition/rebels. Anti-ISIS. But has been limiting support to the rebels.
  7. Russia. Allied to Assad, anti-rebels. Also anti-ISIS. Has been accused of gross human rights violations (along with almost every party mentioned here).

A Few Points of Contention:

Why does Russia support Assad?

Other than Moscow having always supported the Assads, Syria is a market for Russian arms and ammunition. But more important factors include the Tartus naval base in Syria, Russia’s only in the Mediterranean Sea; which it obviously would like to hold. Russia also sees such uprisings as a tool for destabilization, which can attract Western intervention, which Russia dislikes.

What’s the difference between al-Nusra Front and ISIS?

ISIS was initially ISI before it got disavowed by the al-Qaida because of its rather vocal and outrageous acts of executing anyone it deemed kafir (non-Muslim). Ever since al-Nusra has been al-Qaida’s main branch of operations in Syria. The main difference is ideological. Al-Nusra has a national agenda of overthrowing Assad and establishing a legitimate (albeit Islamic) state that ensures welfare for Muslims. It fights alongside the rebel factions and adheres to the Islamic scholars. Whereas the ISIS has one goal: an enforced Caliphate in which non-Muslims, as well as Muslims who do not agree with their policies, are unwelcome. In fact, they want to get rid of all such people. The ISIS also doesn’t adhere to the religious scholars, only leaders who have a plan for world domination. Al-Nusra enjoys support from civilians too, while ISIS attracts religious fanatics or those who share its apocalyptic worldview.

What causes the infighting amongst the rebels?

Ideological differences, and varying demands. It ranges from wanting Assad overthrown to the establishment of an Islamist caliphate. Throw into the mix separatist agendas of the SDF, sectarian differences, and the varying degrees of radical Islamism, and what you get is utter chaos leading only to the absence of a single key player on ground to combat Assad.

What’s India’s stance on the war?

India maintains friendly – rather diplomatic – terms with Damascus, but still holds on to its policy of non-alignment and has refrained from taking a strong, public, or official stance on the civil war. Though India suggests that talks should be the way to resolve the crisis, it has also shown support of Russian airstrikes against the ISIS. And we know well, that the missiles don’t only hit ISIS, but also rebel factions backed by the US and civilians too.

Why should India care?

Around 7 million Indians work in the Gulf region and safety remains a concern. A bad case scenario would be a large scale evacuation program, and reintegrating the people back into the society, which is no easy task. Also, Syria and India both have been targets of jihadist terror attacks, so obviously it’s in India’s interest to back Assad and Russia to obliterate ISIS (because it has put India on its target map).

In the end, the Syrian Civil War still rages on, with no end in sight. In this battle between multiple factions for power and control. Driven by personal agendas, it’s ultimately the civilians who are suffering as millions of them are displaced across Europe, and elsewhere. We, as common individuals, can only do our bit by educating ourselves about the atrocities in Syria, making sure we choose the right leaders, protect ourselves from separatist ideologies, and galvanize ourselves against communal hatred arising from social differences.

We can only hope for a better world.

Agnihotra Bhattacharya

PS. These facts have been compiled to the best of our research. Yet, if anyone finds a factual error, do let us know.
For further reading: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/meast/syria-civil-war-fast-facts/

One thought on “Syrian Civil War: A Low-Down

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  1. You conveniently skipped the part about how there were reports of American citizens seen during and before the time of the first revolt, you also skipped the part about white helmets a supposedly peaceful group which has been carrying arms, missed the part about the massive russian aid intervention to the citizens, the part where independent journalists report an entirely different picture as told to them by the citizens of the country contrary to what most of the mainstream media has reported. What about the part where freed civilians chanted assad’s name and raised the flag. Seems to me if this whole engineering thing does not work you sure have a spot at buzfeed or vox lel. PS Assad is horrible, we all know that but you should also know that some western countries are in the process of unlawfully destabilizing that country to bring about a regime change, and it’s not in the best interest of anybody to believe in the propaganda of the two sides. Peace.

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