User:S0V3R31GNN0RT0N/sandbox - - Wiki English

Syrian civil war

Part of the Arab Spring, Arab Winter, the spillover of the Iraqi conflict, International military intervention against the Islamic State, War on terror, Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, and the Iran–Israel proxy conflict

Top: A ruined neighborhood in Raqqa in 2017.
Bottom: Military situation in September 2021:

Syrian Arab Republic (SAA) Syrian Arab Republic & Rojava (SAA & SDF) Rojava (SDF) Syrian Interim Government (SNA) & Turkish occupation Syrian Salvation Government (HTS^[a]) Revolutionary Commando Army & United States' occupation Opposition groups in reconciliation

Islamic State
(full list of combatants, detailed map)

Date	15 March 2011 (2011-03-15) – present (13 years, 2 months and 2 weeks)
Location	Syria (with spillovers in neighboring countries)
Status	Ongoing
Territorial changes	As of 31 March 2020: the Syrian Armed Forces held 63.57% of Syrian territories; SDF 25.57%; rebel groups (incl. HTS) & Turkey 9.72%; Islamic State 1.14%^[29]

Main belligerents

Syrian Arab Republic

Hezbollah
Iran
Russia (2015–present)
Iraq (2017–19)^[1]^[h]

Support:

Egypt^[2]^[3]

Interim Government (Syrian National Army)^[b]

Turkey^[c]
(2016–present)

Support:

Qatar^[4]
United States^[d]
(2011–17)^[5]
Saudi Arabia
(2012–17)^[6]
United Kingdom
(2011–18)^[7]
France (2011–18)^[8]
Libya (2013)^[9]
Israel^[10]^[11]^[i]

Salvation Government (Tahrir al-Sham)^[e]^[f]

Support:

Qatar (2012–17)
Saudi Arabia (2012–17)
Turkey (2012–17)

Free Syrian Army (Maghaweir al-Thowra)

Support:

Islamic State^[e]
(2013–present)

Support:

Al-Qaeda
(2013–14)

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (SDF) (2012–present)

CJTF–OIR
(2014–present)

United States^[c]
France^[15]
United Kingdom
Jordan
Netherlands
UAE^[16]
Saudi Arabia^[17]
Australia (2015–17)^[18]
Belgium (2014–17)
Bahrain (2014–16)
Denmark (2014–16)
Germany (2014–21)^[19]
Morocco (2014–16)
Qatar (2014–16)
Canada (2014–15)^[20]

Support:

United States
(2014–present)^[21]^[22]
Russia
(2015–18, 2019–present)
France
(2016–present)^[23]^[24]
PKK
PUK
(2013–present)^[25]^[26]^[27]
KDP
(2013–15)^[25]^[28]

Commanders and leaders

Killed:

Issam Zahreddine (Major General of the Republican Guard)
Assef Shawkat (Deputy Minister of Defense)^[30]
Dawoud Rajiha (Minister of Defense)^[31]
Hasan Turkmani (Former Minister of Defense)^[32]
Rustum Ghazaleh (Head of Syrian National Intelligence)^[33]
Jameh Jameh (Head of Military Intelligence)^[34]
Hilal al-Assad^[35]
Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiyar (Security advisor to Bashar al-Assad)
Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Awwad
Brig. Gen. Hassan al-Ibrahim
Brig. Gen. Rajeh Mahmoud (Commander of Syrian Military Engineering)
Maj. Gen. Hussein Isaac (Director of Air Defense Administration of Homs and Al-Malihah)
Maj. Gen.
Adnan Omran (Maj. Gen. of Brigade 75, Brigade 13, Brigade 22, Brigade 99 and 26 Air Defense Command)
Qasem Soleimani (IRGC Major General, commander of the Quds Force, killed in American airstrike in Iraq)^[36]
Hossein Hamadani (IRGC Major General)^[37]
Hassan Shateri (Senior Comdr. of IRGC)^[38]
Hassan Abdollahzadeh (General of IRGC)^[39]
Sa'id Majidi (Brig. General of the IRGC)^[39]
Mustafa Badreddine (Military Leader of Hezbollah)^[40]
Mohamad Issa (Hezbollah Chief of Operations in Syria)^[41]
Samir Kuntar (Senior Commander of Hezbollah)^[42]
Jihad Mughniyah (Hezbollah Head of Security)^[43]
Ali Reza Tavassoli (Leader of Liwa Fatemiyoun)^[44]
Lt. Gen Valery Asapov^[45]
Senior Lt Alexander Prokhorenko^[46]

Killed:

Abdul Qader Saleh (Founder of al-Tawhid Brigade)^[49]
Yusuf al-Jader
Muhammad al-Baridi

Abu Yahia al-Hamawi
Ahmed Issa al-Sheikh (Islamic Front leader, 2012–2015)^[50]

Killed:

Hassan Aboud (Leader of Ahrar al-Sham)^[51]
Hassan Soufan
Abu Khalid al-Suri (senior al-Qaeda Comdr., founding member of Ahrar al-Sham)^[52]
Zahran Alloush (Islamic Front Military Chief) ^[50]^[53]

File:Flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.svg Abu Mohammad al-Julani^[54]
File:Flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.svg Abu Jaber Shaykh
File:Flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.svg Abu Maria al-Qahtani
File:Flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.svg Sami al-Oreidi
^[55]
Ahmad Sarhan (National Front for Liberation leader)^[56]
Jamil al-Saleh (Jaysh al-Izza leader)^[57]
Abu Humam al-Shami^[58]

Killed:

Abu Firas al-Suri (Spokesperson of al-Nusra Front)^[59]^[60]
Abu Hajer al-Homsi (al-Nusra Front military chief)^[61]
Muhsin al-Fadhli (Leader of Khorasan)^[62]
Abu Omar al-Turkistani (Uyghur commander of the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria).
Abu Al-Bara al-Tunisi (Senior commander of the Al-Qaeda linked Hurras al-Din)^[63]
Khalid al-Aruri (Former leader of Hurras al-Din)^[64]
File:Flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.svg Abu Khaled al-Shamy (Spokesman of the HTS military wing)^[65]
File:Flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.svg Abu Ubeidah al-Kansafra (Senior commander and member of HTS Shura council)^[66]

Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (Leader of IS)
Abu Umar al-Muhajir (IS Spokesman)
Sami Jasim Muhammad al-Jaburi (Chief financer) (POW)^[67]
Abu Jandal al-Masri (Chief of Information)

Killed:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (1st ISIL Leader)^[68]
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2nd ISIL Leader)
Haji Bakr (Former Deputy leader of ISIL & Head of Military Council)^[69]
Abu Ayman al-Iraqi (Former Head of Military Council)^[70]
Abu Ali al-Anbari (Deputy, Syria)^[71]
Abu Omar al-Shishani (War Minister)^[72]
Abu Umar al-Tunisi (Senior Leader)^[73]
Abu Sayyaf (Oil Minister)^[74]
Abu Muslim al-Turkmani (Former Deputy Leader)^[75]
Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi (Head of Military Council)^[76]
Gulmurod Khalimov (Minister of War)^[77]
Abu Hamza al-Qurashi (IS spokesman until 2022)
Abu Yasser al-Issawi (Deputy Leader)^[78]
Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi
(Leader of the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army, 2016–17)^[79]
Mohammad Emwazi ('Jihadi John', senior leader)
Muhammad al-Baridi (Founder of Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade)^[80]

Riad Darar
Amina Omar^[81]
(MSD Co-chairperson July 2018 – present)
Salih Muhammad (PYD Co-President until 2017)
Shahoz Hasan (PYD Co-President 2017–present)
Asya Abdullah
(PYD Co-President)
Mazloum Abdi (SDF Comdr.)
Sipan Hemo (YPG Comdr.)

Stephen J. Townsend^[82]

Killed:

Abu Layla (Comdr. of Syrian Democratic Forces)^[83]
Adnan Abu Amjad (Comdr. of the Manbij Military Council)^[84]
Nubar Ozanyan
(IFB and TKP/ML commander)

Units involved

See order

Strength

Syrian Armed Forces: 142,000 (2019)^[85]
General Security Directorate: 8,000^[86]
National Defense Force: 80,000^[87]
Liwa Fatemiyoun: 10,000 – 20,000(2018)^[88]
Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas: 10,000+(2013)^[89]
Ba'ath Brigades: 7,000
Hezbollah: 6,000–8,000^[90]
Liwa Al-Quds: 4,000–8,000
Russia: 4,000 troops^[91] & 1,000 contractors^[92]
Iran: 3,000–5,000^[90]^[93]
Other allied groups: 20,000+

Free Syrian Army: 20,000–32,000^[94] (2013)
Islamic Front: 40,000–70,000^[95]^[96] (2014)
Other groups: 12,500^[97] (2015)
Turkish Armed Forces: 4,000–8,000^[98]^[99]

Ahrar al-Sham: 18,000–20,000+^[100]^[101] (March 2017)

Tahrir al-Sham: 20,000–30,000 (per U.S., late 2018)^[102]

~10,000 (per UN, 2021, in Iraq and Syria)^[103] ~3,000 (per Russia, mid 2019)^[104]^[105]

SDF: 60,000–75,000 (2017 est.)^[106]

YPG & YPJ: 20,000–30,000 (2017 est.)^[107]
Syriac Military Council (MFS): 1,000 (2017 est.)^[108]
Al-Sanadid Forces: 2,000–4,000 (2017 est.)^[108]
SDF Military Councils: 10,000+^[109]^[110]^[111]

United States Armed Forces:
600^[112]

Casualties and losses

Syrian Arab Republic:
91,267–103,670 soldiers & 67,242 militiamen killed^[113]^[114]
4,100 soldiers/militiamen & 1,800 supporters captured^[113]

Hezbollah:
1,712–2,000 killed^[113]^[115]

Russia:
137–160 soldiers killed & 266–284 PMCs killed^[116]
Other non-Syrian fighters:
8,628 killed^[113] (2,300–3,500+ IRGC-led)^[117]^[118]
Total:
169,252–181,984 killed

Syrian opposition/HTS:
111,576–152,173 killed^[g]^[113]^[114]

Turkey:
256–313 killed (2016–20 incursions)^[119]

Islamic State:
41,101 killed^[113]

NES:
14,114 killed^[113]
PKK:
3,200+ killed^[120]

CJTF–OIR:
13 killed^[121] (

10,

160,681 civilian deaths documented by opposition^[113]
100 other foreign soldiers killed ( 60, 17 (pre-'16), 16, 7)

Total killed: 499,657–610,000 (per SOHR)^[113]

Estimated 6.7 million internally displaced & 6.6 million refugees (March 2021)^[122]

^a Formerly al-Nusra Front.
^b Since early 2013, the FSA has been decentralized. Its name is arbitrarily used by various rebels.
^c Turkey provided arms support to rebels (2011–unknown, Aug. 2016 – present) & fought alongside the TFSA in the Aleppo governorate vs. SDF, IS and Syrian gov.
^d Sep.–Nov. 2016: U.S. fought with the TFSA in Aleppo governorate solely vs. IS.^[123]^[124] In 2017–18, the U.S. purposely attacked the Syrian gov. 10 times, & in Sep. 2016 it accidentally hit a Syrian base, killing ≥100 SAA soldiers. Syria maintains this as intentional.^[125]
^e Predecessors of HTS (al-Nusra Front) & IS (ISI) were allied al-Qaeda branches until April 2013. Al-Nusra Front rejected an ISI-proposed merger into ISIL & al-Qaeda cut all affiliation with ISIL in February 2014.
^f Predecessors of Ahrar al-Sham (Syrian Liberation Front) & HTS (al-Nusra Front), were allied under the Army of Conquest (Mar. 2015 – Jan. 2017).
^g Number incl. all anti-government forces, except ISIL and SDF, which are listed in their separate columns.
^h Iraq's involvement was coordinated with the Syrian gov. & limited to airstrikes vs. ISIL.^[1]
ⁱ Israel provided arms to 12 unnamed rebel groups solely against Iran and ISIS.^[126] Israel has also conducted multiple airstrikes against the Syrian government, Hezbollah, and Iranian positions within Syria.^[127]