Which countries have been involved in the war and why?

A surprising advance by Syrian rebels ended Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long rule, with opposition forces taking the capital and forcing the president to flee on 8 December.

The overthrow adopted a 13-year civil struggle, which began after Assad crushed pro-democracy protests, killing greater than half one million individuals and displacing hundreds of thousands extra, and embroiled worldwide powers and their proxies.

The world is now watching to see how Syria’s political panorama shapes up after the overthrow of the Assad household’s half-century rule.

These with a vested curiosity within the battle and the way forward for the nation embody, on one aspect, Russia and Iran – which backed Assad – and on the opposite, the US and Turkey, which supported completely different insurgent teams.

Right here we discover how these nations, together with Israel, have performed a task in Syria – and will proceed to take action.

Throughout Syria’s civil struggle, Turkey has supported opposition forces – primarily the Syrian Nationwide Military (SNA) – by offering arms, army and political assist.

Syria’s northern neighbour has largely been involved with using rebels to contain the Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey accuses of being an extension of a domestically banned Kurdish insurgent group. Turkey additionally desires the roughly three million Syrian refugees residing in its nation to return residence.

The YPG is the largest militia in one other insurgent group, the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance.

Throughout the struggle, Turkish troops and allied rebels seized stretches of territory from these teams alongside Syria’s northern border.

Turkey has additionally been politically concerned. In 2020, Turkey and Russia brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the federal government to retake Idlib, the rebels’ stronghold within the north-west.

Idlib has been administered since 2017 below a so-called authorities by Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the rebels that finally overthrew Assad.

Many believe the offensive couldn’t have occurred with out Turkey’s blessing. Turkey has denied backing HTS.

In the meantime, battle in Syria’s north continues: As Assad fell, the SNA launched a separate assault on areas held by the SDF.

Russia already had a decades-long relationship with the Assad authorities, and had army bases there earlier than the civil struggle.

In 2015, Russia launched an air marketing campaign and despatched 1000’s of troops in assist of the Assad regime.

In return, Russia acquired 49-year leases on an air base and naval base, which supplied essential hubs within the japanese Mediterranean for transferring army contractors out and in of Africa.

However preventing a struggle in Ukraine since 2022 preoccupied Assad’s ally, contributing to the Syrian army’s swift defeat to insurgent teams in late November and early December.

Assad and his household had been granted asylum in Moscow after fleeing Damascus, Russian media reported.

After Syria’s pro-democracy protests in 2011 had been met with power, then US-president Barack Obama criticised the Assad authorities – however the US solely became involved militarily with a purpose to fight the Islamic State (IS).

A US-led world coalition has carried out air strikes and deployed particular forces since 2014 to assist the Kurdish-led insurgent alliance SDF seize territory as soon as held by IS militants within the north-east.

After the Assad authorities fell, the US authorities said it conducted dozens of air strikes in opposition to IS camps and operatives in central Syria to make sure IS couldn’t benefit from the unstable scenario.

Nevertheless, President-elect Donald Trump, who takes workplace in January, said Syria is a “mess” the US ought to keep out of. When Trump was president in 2019, he withdrew US troops from Syria, a transfer his officers step by step rowed again.

The US presently has round 900 troops in Syria.

Iran and Syria have been allies since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. Syria backed Iran through the Iran-Iraq struggle within the Eighties.

Throughout the Syrian civil struggle, Iran is believed to have deployed tons of of troops and spent billions of {dollars} to assist Assad.

1000’s of Shia Muslim fighters armed, skilled and financed by Iran – largely from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah motion, but additionally from Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen – have additionally fought alongside the Syrian military.

However just like Russia, Hezbollah has been weakened by battle with Israel in Lebanon, seemingly hastening the downfall of the Syrian army.

Israel shares a border with Syria. Within the 1967 Six-Day Battle, Israel seized the Golan Heights, about 60km (40 miles) south of Damascus, from Syria, earlier than annexing it in 1981. The annexation will not be recognised by the UN and plenty of different nations.

Israel has conducted air strikes in opposition to Iran-linked targets in Syria through the struggle, though it not often acknowledges such strikes.

Since rebels overthrew Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks throughout Syria. Targets embody Syria’s army infrastructure, naval fleet, and weapons manufacturing websites.

Israel stated it’s appearing to cease weapons falling “into the arms of extremists”.

Israeli forces have additionally seized the demilitarised buffer zone within the Golan Heights and should have strayed into close by Syrian territory.

BBC Confirm geolocated a picture of an IDF soldier standing simply over half a kilometre past the buffer zone, inside Syria on a hillside close to the village of Kwdana.