In the first half of , the government suffered a string of defeats, losing control of the northern provincial city of Idlib to rebel factions and more territory in the east to IS. Worried by his ally's precarious position, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of a major air campaign in support of Mr Assad that September. The Russian military said its strikes would only target "terrorists", but activists said they repeatedly hit mainstream rebel groups and civilian areas.
The intervention swung the conflict heavily in Mr Assad's favour. Intense Russian air and missile strikes were decisive in the battles for the besieged rebel strongholds of eastern Aleppo in late and the Eastern Ghouta in early UN human rights investigators accused government and Russian forces of committing war crimes during the offensives, which reportedly left hundreds of civilians dead and led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands.
The government was also accused by a joint UN-OPCW mission of being behind a Sarin attack on the rebel-held northern town of Khan Sheikhoun in April , which opposition health officials say killed more than 80 people, and accused by Western powers of an attack allegedly involving the toxic chemical chlorine in the Eastern Ghouta town of Douma in April that rescue workers said left 40 dead.
The latter prompted the US, UK and France to conduct air strikes that they said targeted facilities associated with the "Syrian regime's chemical weapons programme". Mr Assad and the Russian military denied committing war crimes, and said the incidents in Khan Sheikhoun and Douma were "staged" by the opposition and their Western backers. After recapturing the Eastern Ghouta, pro-government forces set their sights on the last three opposition bastions.
They retook an enclave north of Homs in May and regained full control of Deraa province two months later. They then declared their intention to "liberate" Idlib province. The UN warned there would be a "bloodbath" if the government launched an all-out assault on an area home to about three million civilians, half of them displaced from other parts of Syria. Mr Assad was not deterred, but the offensive was halted that September by an agreement between Russia and Turkey, which called for a "demilitarised buffer zone" along the front line and the withdrawal from it of the jihadist fighters that dominate Idlib.
However, the deal was never fully implemented, and fighting on the ground and air strikes continued. In late , Mr Assad's forces resumed their offensive. Hundreds of people were killed and almost a million fled their homes before Turkey and Russia agreed another ceasefire in March The president was then forced to turn his attention to dealing with an economic crisis that triggered angry protests in territory under his control for the first time since the start of the uprising.
Mr Assad has weathered the war but the cost of the conflict will mark Syria for years, if not decades, to come. Image source, AFP. Bashar al-Assad says he is fighting foreign-backed terrorists in Syria.
An unplanned president. The Assad family has ruled Syria for more than four decades. Flirtation with reform. Hardline diplomacy. Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon after being blamed for the assassination of Rafik Hariri.
Image source, Reuters. Mr Assad initially blamed a small number of troublemakers and saboteurs for the unrest. In January , the Reuters News Agency reported that more than 5, civilians had been killed by the Syrian militia Shabeeha , and that 1, people had been killed by anti-regime forces.
In June , a UN official stated that the uprisings had transitioned into a full-scale civil war. The conflict continued, with daily reports of the killing of scores of civilians by government forces, and counter-claims by the al-Assad regime of the killings beging staged or the result of outside agitators. In August , al-Assad came under fire from leaders around the world, including U. However, he was able to stave off foreign intervention with assistance from Russian president Vladimir Putin , who agreed to help remove the Syrian stockade of chemical weapons.
Reelected to his post in June , Bashar al-Assad continued his campaign against rebel forces while dismissing outside calls to step down. His position was strengthened the following September, when Russia agreed to provide military support. By February , the conflict had led to an estimated , deaths in Syria, and sparked international debate over how to handle the millions of refugees seeking to escape the brutality. In April , following news of another round of chemical weapons unleashed on civilians, new U.
President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on a Syrian airbase, drawing sharp condemnation from al-Assad and his allies in Russia and Iran. One year later, in April , more disturbing footage of dead or suffering Syrians surfaced amid reports that al-Assad had again used chemical weapons.
According to activist groups in the area, helicopters had dropped barrel bombs filled with toxic gas on Douma, the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, resulting in at least four dozen casualties. However, independent verification of the gassing deaths proved difficult to obtain, and both Syria and Russia, denied any responsibility for the attacks, calling it a "hoax" perpetrated by Syrian rebels.
Regardless, the news enraged President Trump, who called al-Assad an "animal" and even delivered rare public criticism of Putin for protecting the Syrian leader. Early in the morning of April 14, a joint operation of American, British and French forces conducted strikes on Syria, successfully hitting two chemical weapons facilities and a scientific research center. Meanwhile, a U. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives.
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