Syrian Civil War
By: Chris Finn
Maps
This graph is of Syria and who controls what
This really gives you a good idea of what the land divided looks like and what kind of powers are in Syria fighting, and the kind of space they have. This gives me a good though of why they are fighting and what land they can get. Also it shows me how much of a difference there is between the amount of land each side controls, so better force=more land.
Issues
The Issuse first began on April 8th when a video of Syrian security beating and killing innocent civilians became viral. It started when Security forces were stationed in several cities across Syria came up upon protesters. The forces used violence to show superiority and opened fire on hundreds of people and the toll was around 200 dead. Then Assad formed a new cabinet which abolished the Supreme State Security Court, which was a special court used for when people wanted to go against the government. This sparked outrage and more violent protests and more casualities.Then Assad increased the number of troops with help from tanks and other sorts of weapons. They also shut down lots of electricty and internet.Then about 120 Syrian soldiers were killed by the rebels.This caused more and more militias to grow in Syria.
Syrian Protests
Many of these turned very violent
Syrian infantry
Syrian Tanks
Precursor Events
Many Precursor events leading up to the war are very similar to things that happened in the civil war. It all started off with protests against the government because they captured ad tortured students for writing in grafitti "The Government must go!". Then the Protests started to get violent as Bashar started to step up the defenses and man power at the protests. Then The ended up revolting back and starting up a rebel organization to fight back. The Government responded with several bombings and attacks on any suspected militant buildings.
Leaders
There are many leaders of many forces in this war but the three that are the most important are Bashar Al-Assad, Hassan Nasrallah, and Zahran Alloush. Basar Al-Assad is the President of Syria, or more like a Dictator, who controls the Syrian government and armed forces. He used to study Ophthalmology at Western Eye hospital in London, England, until he was recalled to Damascus (Syria's capital) when his brother died to become heir to his fathers presidency, and he is still the President to this day. Another leader is Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah a Shi'a Islamist militant group and political group in Lebanon. Hassan was raised in the improvised Karantina district of eastern beirut where his father ran a small grocery store. When Hassan was growing up, he was a student of Islam. The outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975 caused the family to flee south from Beirut. Following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he left Amal to join Hezbollah. Hassan was despotic and abusive. Hassan Nasrallah is the third Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah. Finally the last great leader is Zahran Alloush who is the leader of the rebels in Syria. Born in 1971, Zahran was best known for his leadership of the Syrian Rebels. He was a former prisoner, released in 2011 by dictator Assad. He established the army of Islam, which soon became one of the best organized groups. The group fights Assad, as well as the Islamic State. Zahran had brutal leadership tactics, which were claimed to be similar to ISIS.
Bashar al Assad
The President and Leader of government forces.
Hassan Nasrallah
The leader of the Lebanon group Hezbollah.
Zahran Alloush
The leader of the Rebels fighting against the government.
Arms and Army
The government uses weapons such as many forms of chemical weapons, artillery, infantry, armored vehicles. Many airstrikes have been launched against fellow forces. The Government has a huge advantage in the war because of the amount of soldiers and weapons they have.
Chemical weapons
These have been used many times during the war, and the US are trying to force Syria to give them up.
Armored Vehicles
They us many things like tanks, transport vehicles, and sets of artillery's.
Infantry
Even some children soldiers are used.
Resources and Technology
The Syrian government has a huge advantage in this war with their weapons to their trained army to their Technology( as in weapons like tanks,guns, bombs, and chemical). As the rebels and other militia groups don't have access to such materials they fall behind to the government and are losing the war. Also the rebels don't have much access to the top weaponry and get destroyed in that category. And Finally the rebels don't have access to much healthcare buildings as most have been destroyed or taken over.
Alliances
There aren't many allainces in the Syria Civil war but there are some that are crucial. The Syrian government is partnered with Iran and Russia. This is big because Russia is a huge superpower and there are rumors that they have actually bombed some of the buildings in Syria. Iran is a key part because of the amount of resources they have. Meanwhile everyone is fighting the side known as ISIS to try and stop them from taking over. The United States has no alliances they are just fighting for what should be right.
Graphs
Graph of the number of deaths in Syria from 18 of March 2011 to 1 of March 2013
This shows how when the violence first started up there weren't many deaths but as soon as it got started the deaths skyrocketed in little time.
Graph of total number of refugees from March 2012 to August 2015
This shows that as the war kept raging on for more years more and more people went to other countries and fled as the violence increased.
Graph of number of civilians killed from January 2015 to July 2015
This shows the number of civilians killed in Syria so far by many of the forces in the War.
Society
This whole war started because of problems in society. It started with the greatly harsh rule of Bashar Al-Assad that continues today which everyone is fighting for.These teenagers wrote their mind about the government and ended up getting tortured and killed because of it. Then this caused major protests and disagreements in Syria which ended up turning into a violent and horrible war. The violent protests ended up turning into people fighting for themselves and defending their lives.