After 13 Years, Syria’s Bloody War Shows No Sign of Letting Up

INTERNATIONAL POLICY DIGEST

On March 15, Syria’s civil war entered its thirteenth year and another one in which the chances for long-term and sustainable peace look unlikely. Despite some reduction in violence in recent years, a peaceful resolution remains distant, even as the country’s population remains trapped in a humanitarian crisis.

Last year, the UN estimated that more than 350,000 people had died as a direct result of the war during its first decade. But that figure did not include many more thousands who may have died indirectly, through a lack of access to healthcare, food, or water. Out of a population of more than 22 million in 2011, Syria has seen 6.7 million people internally displaced and 6.6 million leave the country to become forever refugees.

The war was part of the wider Arab uprisings taking place at the time. Initially, protestors took to the street to demand change. When the regime, headed by President Bashar al-Assad, cracked down on them, others took note and took up arms. What began as a revolutionary movement evolved into an armed conflict. Moreover, it did not stay within its borders, with both the regime and its opponents acquiring support from the outside.

While Assad’s hold on power looked unsteady during the first years of the conflict, by the second half of 2010 the regime had recovered sufficiently to regain around 70 percent of the national territory, with the remainder controlled by armed groups, mostly in the north.

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