Idlib in Syria is heavily bombed

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People are trapped in Idlib between Syrian government forces, Iranians, the Russian and Syrian Airforce on one side and Syrian opposition fighters on the other side.

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The effect of a barrel bomb


A barrel bomb is an improvised unguided bomb, sometimes described as a flying IED (improvised explosive device). They are typically made from a large barrel-shaped metal container that has been filled with high explosives, possibly shrapnel, oil or chemicals as well, and then dropped from a helicopter or airplane. Due to the large amount of explosives (up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb)), their poor accuracy and indiscriminate use in populated civilian areas (including refugee camps), the resulting detonations have been devastating. Critics have characterised them as weapons of terror and illegal under international conventions.

The earliest known use of barrel bombs in their current form was by the Israeli military in 1948. The second known use of barrel bombs was by the US military in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Starting in the 1990s, they were also used in Sri Lanka, Croatia and Sudan. Barrel bombs have been used extensively by the Syrian Air Force during the Syrian Civil War—bringing the weapon to widespread global attention—and later by the Iraqi forces during the Anbar clashes. Experts believe they will continue to be embraced by unstable nations fighting insurgencies since they are cheap to make and utilise the advantages of a government's airpower.

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There are various sides in a conflict and therefor I take no side, but I do believe it is sad that civilians are the victims of National, regional and geopolitical powers. Every war, civil war, armed conflict and terrorist activity is brutal and in each of these conflicts citizens pay the prize of the tensions between the opposing powers. Who are the powers that play a role in Syria's turmoil? Saudi Arabia is one of the main actors in the conflict. For instance the Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Syrian War involved the large-scale supply of weapons and ammunition to various rebel groups in Syria during the Syrian Civil War. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have received criticism from the Western Media for backing certain Syrian rebels associated with the Army of Conquest, which includes the al-Nusra front, an al-Qaeda affiliated group. In December 2012, a new wave of weapons from foreign supporters were transferred to rebel forces via the Jordanian border in the country's south. The arms included M79 Osa anti-tank weapons and M-60 recoilless rifles purchased by Saudi Arabia from Croatia. Previously, most of the weapons were delivered via the Turkish border in the north. The goal for the change in routes was to strengthen moderate rebels and to support their push towards Damascus.


Syrian president Bashar Hafez al-Assad with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic are close strategic allies, and Iran has provided significant support for the Syrian Government in the Syrian Civil War, including logistical, technical and financial support, as well as training and some combat troops. Iran sees the survival of the Syrian government as being crucial to its regional interests. Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian Civil War has been substantial since the beginning of armed insurgency phase of the Syrian Civil War, and turned into active support and troop deployment from 2012 onwards. By 2014, Hezbollah involvement begun to turn steady in support of Syrian Ba'athist Government forces across Syria. Hezbollah deployed several thousand fighters in Syria and by 2015 lost up to 1,500 fighters in combat. Hezbollah has also been very active to prevent rebel penetration from Syria to Lebanon, being one of the most active forces in the Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon.


Syrian President Bashar al Assad made his first public visit to his closest regional ally Iran since the start of Syria's war in 2011, meeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on February 25, 2019.

Russia has supported the incumbent Bashar al-Assad government of Syria since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011: politically, with military aid, and since 30 September 2015 also through direct military involvement. The latter marked the first time since the end of the Cold War that Russia entered an armed conflict outside the borders of the former Soviet Union. Russia has also separately provided armament and air support to Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces in their operations against ISIL (Islamic State/Daesh) in Syria. Throughout the course of the intervention, Russian airstrikes had been criticized and highlighted for allegedly conducting a campaign focusing on the destruction of hospitals and medical facilities as well killing several thousands of civilians.


President Bashar al-Assad (left) and Vladimir Putin


Members of the Russian military police walk past a Syrian regime soldier in the Syrian city of Homs.

The American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War refers to the United States-led support of Syrian opposition and the Federation of Northern Syria during the course of the Syrian Civil War and active military involvement led by the United States and its allies — the militaries of the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, Turkey, Canada, Australia and more — against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front since 2014. Since early 2017, the U.S. and other Coalition partners have also targeted positions of the Syrian government and its allies via airstrikes and aircraft shoot-downs. The US also actively supported the the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Kurd 'People's Protection Units' (YPG) in Northern-Syria in their fight against the Islamic State (Daesh).


US military funds and supports Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria (Reuters)

In early 2015, the group won a major victory over ISIL at the Siege of Kobanî, where the YPG began to receive air and ground support from the United States and other coalition nations. Since then, the YPG has primarily fought against ISIL, as well as on occasion fighting other Syrian rebel groups.


Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units, (Y.P.G), stand guard next to US armoured vehicles.


The loosely-knit coalition of Syrian rebel groups, including Kurdish factions, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are armed, trained and backed by the U.S.

In late 2015, the YPG founded the Syrian Democratic Forces upon the US's urging, as an umbrella group to better incorporate Arabs and minorities (like Turkmen people) into the war effort. In 2016–2017, the SDF's Raqqa campaign captured the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital.

Turkey, which had had a relatively friendly relationship with Syria over the decade prior to the start of the civil unrest in Syria in the spring of 2011, condemned the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad over the violent crackdown on protests in 2011 and later that year joined a number of other countries demanding his resignation. In the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, Turkey trained defectors of the Syrian Army on its territory, and in July 2011, a group of them announced the birth of the Free Syrian Army, under the supervision of Turkish intelligence. In October 2011, Turkey began sheltering the Free Syrian Army, offering the group a safe zone and a base of operations. Together with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey has also provided the rebels with arms and other military equipment. Tensions between Syria and Turkey significantly worsened after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish fighter jet in June 2012, and border clashes erupted in October 2012. On 24 August 2016, the Turkish armed forces began a declared direct military intervention into Syria pursuing as targets both ISIL (Islamic State/Daesh) and the Kurdish-aligned forces in Syria (SDF and YPG).


Turkish troops and Free Syrian Army fighters hold flags on Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin


Turkish armoured vehicles move towards Hassa district of Hatay, Turkey, as part of the Operation Olive Branch. (AA)

Supporters of the Assad regime
Assyrian Christians, Druze, Allawites, Shia Muslims, Armenians, some Sunni Muslims affiliated with the Syrian Ba'ath regime and secular (atheist) Syrians support the Syrian Ba'ath regime of Hafiz al-Assad, because they fear the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State (Daesh/ISIL), Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (the 'Islamic Movement of the Free Men of the Levant'), Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (Arabic: هيئة تحرير الشام‎, transliteration: Hayʼat Taḥrīr al-Shām, "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee", of whom the former Al Nusra Front is part), Al Qaida in Syria and other radical Islamist Salafist Jihadi groups in Syria. To be honest, I understand the fear of the Syrian Allawite, Shia, Arab Christian (Assyrian christians, Chaldean christians, Maronites and Copts), Druze, Armenian, Kurd, Isma'ili, Mandean, Shia and Yazidi minorities for the Syrian Sunni Muslim majority which were always under the control of the Allawite Syrian Ba'ath party rulers Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad for decades. The Syrian Ba'ath party was always controlled by the Allawite minority of the Assad family clan of the Kalbiyya tribe.


Hafez al-Assad (6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian politician who served as President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. He was also Prime Minister from 1970 to 1971, as well as Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Secretary General of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000.


Bashar Hafez al-Assad (born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who has been the President of Syria since 17 July 2000. He is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and Regional Secretary of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party's branch in Syria. He is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000.


The Syrian opposition
Other Syrians fear the Syrian Ba'ath regime of president Bashar al-Assad like they fear his harsh father Hafez al-Assad. These Syrians fear the Syrian Armed Forces, the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (Arabic: إدارة المخابرات العامة‎, Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Amma), because the Mukhabarat is everywhere and is known for their total control, prisons, torture centers and thus power. They fear the Pro-Ba'ath regime National Defence Forces (NDF), the Lions of Hussein (a criminal pro government Alawite militia which is made of members of the former criminal Shabiha organization), the Pro-government factions of the Syrian Civil War, Hezbollah, other foreign Shia militia from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Sudan who are fighting in Syrian and the men of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) (Persian: سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی‎, romanized: Sepâh-e Pâsdârân-e Enghelâb-e Eslâmi, lit. 'Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution' or Sepâh for short). The fanatical and very well trained and equipped Lebanese Hezbollah fighters are very active in Syria and feared and loathed. They are loyal to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei and followers of Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini also know as Ayatollah Khomeini and their Lebanese leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary party Hezbollah.