From Protests to Conflict – Syrian Civil War

The Syrian Civil War is a multi-sided conflict involving many state and non-state actors. In March 2011, as a result of the Arab Spring, a series of violent public protests against President Bashar al-Assad began in Syria.

The Bashar regime used violence and severe military force to disperse the protesters and to protect the regime’s rule. As a result of the violent actions of the Syrian Army directed by President Bashar Al Assad, Col. Riad al-Assad, an officer of the Bashar army, defected from the Syrian Army and formed an organization called the Free Syrian Army on July 29, 2011, whose main aim was to protect the protestors and bring an end to the dictatorial rule of the Bashar regime.

Since then, these demonstrations have turned into a bloody war, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties, which later proved a driving force for the upcoming horrific war crimes. The United States, Russia, the Syrian Army, Iranian-backed militias, the Free Syrian Army, Al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, and later on, ISIS have come forward as the main actors of this war, and these state and non-state actors have been fighting against each other since then.

As a result of this war, several hundred thousand Syrians have been killed, and millions have been displaced from their homes. The primary purpose of this article is to reveal and bring to light the massacres and war crimes that have occurred because of the Syrian Civil War.

The loss of human lives as a result of the Syrian civil war is no secret. Since 2011, when this bloody war broke out, millions of people have been victims of this brutality. In March 2015, the United Nations released a report about the Syrian war and revealed that six percent of Syria’s population had been wiped out because of the war. This shows the severity and disastrous humanitarian consequences of this war.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) presented a report in March 2023 claiming that 230,224 civilians had been killed, including 154871 who were killed by torture, and over 14 million people had been displaced. In this war, the Syrian and Russian military alliance carried out large-scale bombings and military operations to protect the Bashar regime.

In these operations, precautionary measures were not taken into account, and as a result, thousands of civilians were killed.
Recently, the 2023 Syria Network for Human Rights released a report stating that the alliance carried out at least 51 strikes in joint operations in Idlib, killing many civilians and causing significant damage to infrastructure in the Idlib Governorate, in which 13 schools, 8 medical centers, 5 rescue centers, 8 mosques, and 6 IDP camps were destroyed.

In 2017, Russia dropped its deadliest non-nuclear bomb on Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria named the “Father of All Bombs,” and claimed that the attack was carried out against ISIS. Still, media reports claimed that there were plenty of civilian casualties in it. In the Syrian War, Iran is also engaged in a struggle with its militias to save the Bashar regime and has won many battles against ISIS in many areas. Still, the same militias have created fear and panic in these areas.

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Several Kurdish officials claim that Iran-backed militia forces are using Iraqi government weapons against Sunni Kurds. According to Al-Arabiya English report, Iranian-backed militias such as the Fatemiyoun and Zainabyoun militias have established secret sleeper cells in Syria, where they treat people very inhumanely. According to this report, the Syrian emigrants told Al-Arabiya that Fatimiyoun and Zainabyoun fighters roam freely in these areas, and it is impossible to utter a word against them. Whoever does so is locked in secret cells and subjected to the worst torture.

U.S. forces have also been present in Syria since 2015 and have so far conducted many large-scale operations in different areas of Syria. In 2017, the US-led coalition conducted a four-month operation in the Raqqa region, which was the capital of ISIS, and during this time, the United States dropped about 10,000 bombs on the area. According to the 2020 New Yorker report, several thousand innocent civilians were killed in these bombings, and 80 percent of the area was transformed into ruins.

It has been 13 years since the start of this war, and around 50 innocent people are dying on a daily basis. This is a very alarming situation regarding human values. It is the right time that international peace organizations like the United Nations should step forward for a permanent solution so that long-lasting peace can prevail.

World powers such as Russia, America, Great Britain, and Iran should end this power struggle game and rebuild the damaged infrastructure of Syria so that the Syrian refugees can be resettled. The international stakeholders should also bring the non-state resistance groups to the table of negotiation to remove their stranglehold because these people are also important stakeholders in this war, and it is essential to disarm them for long-lasting peace.

The most important thing is that this war was started as a result of public protests against the dictatorial regime of Bashar, so now, according to international laws, neutral and transparent elections should be held in Syria so that a democratic government structure is formed, replacing the dictatorial rule. This will ensure the end of the war, and a government will be formed according to the wishes of the Syrian people.

Author Jawad Wazir is a Student of Strategic and Security studies at National Defense University, Islamabad.

** The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views or position of World Affairs Insider. The organization neither endorses nor takes responsibility for the content of this article and its accuracy.