The Syrian civil war - statistics & facts
The Syrian civil war is an on-going armed conflict, fought primarily between the Syrian government, led by the president Bashar al-Assad, and multiple opposing factions, including the Islamic State. Following years of a stalemate situation, the war again gained international attention in late 2024 when the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized control of the country's second largest city Aleppo. Within a week, rebel forces had reached the capital Damascus, president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, and his regime had fallen. The civil war started in 2011 when anti-government protests were brutally cracked down by president Bashar al-Assad's government and militant groups started forming. In 2014, the Islamic State seized control of large parts of Eastern Syria. The civil war war has caused tremendous humanitarian suffering, and millions of people have fled the country. It is estimated that there have been at least 200,000 civilian casualties since the beginning of the conflict in 2011 until 2017; and about 25,000 of them were children.
In 2019, the Islamic State lost control of most of the territory it controlled in Iraq and Syria. As a result, the number of fatalities killed in attacks by the Islamic State worldwide has decreased in recent years, but the organization continues to pose a threat both in Syria and other parts of the world. In recent years, it has established itself in some African countries such as the Sahel, Nigeria and Mozambique.
In addition to the humanitarian catastrophe, the Syria civil war continues to take a serious toll on the country’s economy. The Syrian people are faced with homelessness, as at least 22 percent of housing units have been either damaged or destroyed. It was estimated that the economic loss due to the civil war to the housing sector is somewhere between 22.8 and 28 billion U.S. dollars.
In 2019, the Islamic State lost control of most of the territory it controlled in Iraq and Syria. As a result, the number of fatalities killed in attacks by the Islamic State worldwide has decreased in recent years, but the organization continues to pose a threat both in Syria and other parts of the world. In recent years, it has established itself in some African countries such as the Sahel, Nigeria and Mozambique.
Foreign actors in the war
Western countries have avoided being directly involved; however, since 2014, the United States and the Allied forces have been conducting airstrikes in Syria to fight Islamic extremists. Furthermore, the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in February 2022. In 2015, Russia entered the war by military backing the Syrian government, a move that helped tilt the war in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's favor. However, Russian presence in Syria has been significantly reduced after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia and Syria have long had close ties, and the fall of the Assad-regime would have meant the loss of an important regional partner for Russia. Additionally, the Syrian government has received significant military backing from Iran, but also from the Hezbollah in Lebanon, a militia with close ties to Tehran, as well as from the Iraqi government, who together make up the informal Axis of Resistance. On the other hand, Turkey has been backing opposition factions such as the Syrian National Army (SNA), not to be confused with the Syrian government forces.The consequences of the Syrian civil war
As a result of the war, several million people have been forced to leave their homes. Some are internally displaced, still living in Syria, while others have fled to other countries. Most have fled to neighboring countries with approximately 3.5 million living in Turkey. Many have emigrated towards Europe, where many landed in Germany and Sweden, but after tighter border restrictions and a deal between Turkey and the EU, fewer refugees make it to Western Europe. Moreover, a UN-mission found that chemical weapons such as sarin gas, chlorine gas, and mustard agent were used by the Syrian government forces, especially after an attack by them on Ghouta in 2013.In addition to the humanitarian catastrophe, the Syria civil war continues to take a serious toll on the country’s economy. The Syrian people are faced with homelessness, as at least 22 percent of housing units have been either damaged or destroyed. It was estimated that the economic loss due to the civil war to the housing sector is somewhere between 22.8 and 28 billion U.S. dollars.
