[The Syrian civil war was sparked in 2011 when protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad escalated into armed conflict. Despite being a brutal and effective military force, the Assad regime’s control over the country began to fray in 2015.
A combination of factors contributed to the regime’s decline. The rise of ISIS, a radical Islamist group, drew fighters away from the conflict with the government, weakening the opposition’s forces. The US-led coalition’s airstrikes against ISIS targets also reduced the threat to the regime, allowing the government to focus on repressing the opposition.
Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, which had been fighting alongside the government, began to pull back from the front lines. This was partly due to the devastating toll of the war on their fighters and partly due to their focus on other regional conflicts.
As the regime’s grip on the country loosened, the opposition forces began to make gains. In 2015, they captured the strategic city of Idlib, which gave them control of the country’s north. In 2016, they took the city of Aleppo, which was the largest urban center in the country.
The regime’s loss of Aleppo was a significant blow, as it represented a major defeat for the government and a victory for the opposition. It also led to a massive refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of people fled the city and the surrounding area.
In the years that followed, the regime continued to lose ground. The opposition forces, backed by international support, continued to make gains, and the regime’s control over the country began to fragment. Today, the regime is in control of only a small portion of the country, and the opposition forces have established a number of independent territories.
Despite the significant gains made by the opposition, the conflict in Syria is far from over. The regime remains in control of key cities and continues to launch attacks on opposition-held areas. The humanitarian situation in the country remains dire, with millions of people displaced and in need of aid.
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