The Syrian Civil War
Layan Sumilan
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Many people know about the war currently happening in Syria for years now. But what is exactly happening and for how long? As of January 2023, Syria is officially the 3rd most dangerous country to live in. Over 10 years ago marked the start of the Syrian war on March 15, 2011. The Al-Assad family has been governing Syria since 1963. Fifteen teenagers were arrested and tortured by security for anti-government graffiti in Daraa. People were angry and started protesting for the end of corruption. In response, the government acted with violence towards its citizens, and Daraa was barricaded. That made people even angrier and demanded that Bashar Al-Assad resign. That was the start of what we know now as the Syrian Civil War.
Bashar Al-Assad and his wife
(Image from Australian Institute of International Affairs)
ISIS, which is the second largest after the Taliban and the richest terrorist group, took advantage of this and started fighting the government and citizens to grow their territory and so far they have obtained a third of Syria. Iran and Russia are the biggest supporters of the Syrian government and their support has allowed Assad to continue destroying the country.
A war-torn Syrian street
(Image from Wikimiedia Commons)
As of March 2022, about 610,000 civilians have died because of the war and 80% live below the poverty line. Bashar used many different ways to kill Syrian civilians such as shootings and mass killings, mortar, artillery, and rocket attacks, air attacks, kidnapping, detaining and/or torture, chemical or toxic substances, attacks in hospitals, starvation, dehydration, lack of medical care and American air campaigns against ISIS. According to the people of Syria, the northern part of the country is considered to be the safest with as low as a 1 in 68 chance of being a victim of crime. The most dangerous city is said to be Aleppo which people call “Death Everywhere” due to the number of bombings and deaths.
Fundraisers like the UN Refugee Agency and the International Rescue Committee are made to help people in Syria to be able to purchase heating stoves, fuel, and warm clothes for the winter and to be able to find a safe place to live and have enough food to feed their families. How long will this keep going and will the other nations do anything to stop it? Or will the Syrian government get its way and keep harming the innocent citizens of Syria.
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