The Syrian Civil War began in March 2011, when protests in Daraa against the government of President Bashar al-Assad — part of the broader Arab Spring — escalated into armed conflict after security forces fired on demonstrators. By late 2011, defectors had formed the Free Syrian Army, and the uprising fragmented into a multi-sided war involving the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, a range of opposition factions, Kurdish-led forces (the YPG and later the Syrian Democratic Forces), and jihadist groups including Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State (ISIS), which declared its "caliphate" in 2014.
The conflict became heavily internationalized. Russia intervened militarily in September 2015 in support of Assad, alongside Iran and Iranian-backed forces including Lebanese Hezbollah. A US-led coalition began airstrikes against ISIS in 2014 and partnered with the SDF on the ground. Turkey launched several cross-border operations (Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018, Peace Spring in 2019) targeting Kurdish forces and ISIS. Israel has repeatedly struck Iranian and Hezbollah assets inside Syria.
Key diplomatic tracks include the Geneva process under UN auspices (Special Envoys de Mistura and later Geir Pedersen), the Astana talks launched in 2017 by Russia, Iran, and Turkey, and UN Security Council Resolution 2254 (2015), which set out a roadmap for a ceasefire, constitutional reform, and elections. The war has produced one of the largest displacement crises since World War II, with millions of refugees hosted primarily by Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, and millions more internally displaced. The OPCW and UN have documented multiple chemical weapons attacks, including the August 2013 Ghouta sarin attack and the April 2017 Khan Shaykhun attack.
In December 2024, a rapid offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions captured Damascus, and Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, ending more than five decades of Ba'athist rule by the Assad family.
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In September 2015, Russia launched airstrikes in Syria at the request of the Assad government, decisively shifting the military balance against opposition forces.