The Syrian Civil War began with protests in March 2011 that Assad met with force. ISIS declared a caliphate in 2014, Russia intervened in 2015, and Assad regai…
Boys were arrested over anti-government graffiti. Protests spread, security forces opened fire, and defectors formed the Free Syrian Army by July.
Rockets with sarin hit opposition suburbs, killing hundreds. A US-Russia deal then removed Syria's declared chemical stockpile.
ISIS ruled large parts of Syria and Iraq from Raqqa. A US-led coalition began air strikes in Syria that September.
Russian air power stopped Assad's collapse and helped him retake eastern Aleppo in December 2016, the rebels' biggest defeat.
A Russia-Turkey deal froze the north-west. Assad held the cities; HTS ran Idlib; the SDF ran the north-east.
An HTS-led offensive took Aleppo, Hama and Homs, then Damascus on 8 December. Assad fled to Moscow.
Ahmed al-Sharaa became transitional president. Massacres on the coast and in Suwayda tested his promise to protect minorities.
The SDF dissolved into the state, parliament first met on 12 July, Assad got a death sentence in absentia, and the US terror listing ended.
Read the complete story, FAQs and key facts.