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| - Syria's war, which began nine years ago, has involved many regional and international players, creating millions of refugees and displaced, while leaving more than 380,000 dead. Here is a summary of the main events in the conflict: In March 2011, protests break out to demand political change after four decades of repressive rule by the Assad dynasty. President Bashar al-Assad's regime cracks down on demonstrations but rallies continue. In July an army colonel who has defected from the military sets up the Turkey-based opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA). An armed rebellion erupts, with support from western and Arab countries. The rebels seize key territory, including large swathes of third city Homs and a chunk of Aleppo, the second city. In 2012 regime forces step up their crackdown, carrying out bloody operations, notably in the central city of Hama, a bastion of opposition to the Assad regime. In July FSA fighters launch a battle for Damascus. The government keeps control of the capital, but rebels seize parts of the suburbs. From 2013 regime helicopters and planes unleash air strikes, some of them using barrel bombs, on rebel zones, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The same year Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah says it has deployed fighters to back Syrian government forces. Iran also boosts its support for Assad. On August 21, 2013, a chemical attack on two rebel-held areas near Damascus reportedly kill more than 1,400 people. The regime denies charges that it is responsible. US president Barack Obama at the last minute pulls back from threatened punitive strikes, instead agreeing a deal with Moscow that is meant to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. In June 2014, the jihadist Islamic State group (IS) proclaims a "caliphate" over territory it has seized in Syria and Iraq. In September, a US-led coalition launches air strikes against IS in Syria. The strikes benefit Kurdish groups, which since 2013 have run autonomous administrations in Kurdish-majority areas. Kurds join with Arabs to form the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The alliance will go on to oust IS from key areas, including the jihadists' de facto capital Raqa in 2017, and then in 2019, the group's last Syrian holdout in the village of Baghuz near the border with Iraq. In September 2015, Syria's main ally Russia launches air strikes in support of Assad's beleaguered troops, a turning point in the war. In a string of deadly campaigns, the regime retakes key rebel bastions, from Aleppo in 2016 to Eastern Ghouta in 2018. In April 2017, a sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun kills more than 80 people. US President Donald Trump unleashes missile strikes against the regime's Shayrat airbase. In April 2018, the US, with the support of France and Britain, launches retaliatory strikes after an alleged regime chemical attack on the then rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus. On October 9, 2019, Ankara launches an offensive targeting Kurdish forces in Syria, whom it brands "terrorists" linked to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey. The operation follows Washington's announcement that US forces would withdraw from the border areas between Turkey and Syria. The operation allows Turkey to retake control of a 120-kilometre-long (75-mile-long), 30-kilometre-wide strip of territory along its border with Syria. In December 2019, the regime launches a deadly offensive in northwestern Syria to retake the country's last major jihadist bastion of Idlib. The violence has provoked a humanitarian crisis, with nearly one million people displaced and Turkey suffering heavy losses in clashes with regime forces. acm-jmy/dwo
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