The uprising against ruler Bashar al-Assad began twelve years ago. Today Syria is on the ground – and the violence never ends.
They took to the streets because they were fed up with the oppression. The people of the Syrian city of Daraa did not want to accept that 15 of their children had been arrested and tortured simply for writing anti-regime slogans on walls. The protests in Daraa on March 15, 2011 mark the beginning of the uprising against Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad. Today, twelve years later, the country is on the ground. It is divided into the spheres of power of individual parties and their international helpers. Although the intensity of the fighting has decreased, the war is not over yet. And the hope of an early, lasting solution to the conflict is slim.
The brutal ruler Assad
As protests spread to more and more cities in 2011, Assad sent in the military to break the resistance. The opposition armed themselves – and fired back. The demonstrations turned into a particularly cruel war: half a million people were killed and more than 13 million were displaced.