{"id":56144,"date":"2020-03-15T16:33:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-15T16:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/15\/syrian-war-rumbling-into-10th-year-still-has-global-impact\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:19:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:19:04","slug":"syrian-war-rumbling-into-10th-year-still-has-global-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/2020\/03\/15\/syrian-war-rumbling-into-10th-year-still-has-global-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian war, rumbling into 10th year, still has global impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BEIRUT \u2014 In a world gripped by a pandemic, global unrest and a fast-moving news cycle, it can be difficult to remember that the war in Syria is still happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the coronavirus outbreak took over daily lives around the globe, the conflict, which began in early 2011, had largely fallen off the world\u2019s collective radars \u2014 reduced to a never-ending fight involving an ever-more complex web of players and refugees that few remember once lived in a country they called home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as it enters its 10th year, the war \u2014 which gave rise to the Islamic State group and triggered the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century \u2014 has shown it is still creating new tragedies that can have an outsized impact on global politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Turkish
In this Feb. 29, 2020, file photo, an honor guard carries the coffin of Muhammed Ali Ozer, one of the 36 Turkish soldiers killed in a Syrian army attack in the Idlib area of Syria, in Hatay, Turkey. (AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, Turkish and Syrian troops were clashing<\/a> in Syria\u2019s northwest. That brought NATO-member Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides of the war, to the brink of direct confrontation, and produced an unprecedented wave of displaced people. Arguing that it faces a potential new influx of refugees from Syria, Turkey announced it would no longer stop its vast migrant and refugee population from illegally entering Greece, touching off a new crisis for the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of Syria\u2019s pre-war population of 23 million people have been driven from their homes, and a staggering 80 percent of the population live beneath the poverty line, according to the United Nations. Half the country lies in ruins. A political process does not exist. Contrary to what some may hope, the Syrian war is nowhere near its end-game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHAOS IN THE NORTH<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cease-fire brokered by the Turkish and Russian<\/a> presidents in Moscow last week may have put the brakes on the Syrian government\u2019s devastating military campaign to retake the northwestern Idlib province. But the halt is not a long-term solution, and the war\u2019s final and most devastating chapter is yet to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the three months before it was paused, the Syrian offensive triggered the largest single wave of displacement of the entire war. That may be dwarfed by the flight of humanity toward Turkey if Syrian President Bashar Assad resumes the assault to retake Idlib, home to some 3 million people. The area is the last remaining rebel-controlled area in Syria, and from Assad\u2019s perspective, the only place standing in the way of complete military victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Syrian
Since December over 900 ,000 people fled from their homes in northwest Syria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if Idlib is somehow retaken and an estimated 3 million people are accommodated in Turkey or elsewhere, it is unlikely that Damascus has the capacity or even the tools to rule over formerly opposition-controlled areas for long periods of time without trouble,\u201d said Danny Makki, a London-based Syrian journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, a Turkey-Russia deal brokered in October ended a Turkish military campaign against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters in the country\u2019s northeast. But the oil-rich region is still contested. There are hundreds American troops there, ostensibly on a mission to protect Kurdish-controlled oil fields from remnants of the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both U.S. and Russian troops patrol the tense area <\/a>separately, and thousands of Iranian-backed militias are stationed nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A PERFECT STORM OF DEVASTATION\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a decade of fighting has transformed the Mideast country into a failed state providing free-for-all proxy battlefield where world powers can settle their scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia, Iran, Turkey and the U.S. all have boots on the ground in Syria. The Lebanese Hezbollah group and a slew of other Iranian-backed militias are fighting there. Israel bombs inside Syria frequently and at will. The war has pulled in so many international players that one Syrian joke says perhaps the Syrian people are the ones who need to leave the country, so as not to disturb those foreign powers fighting on their soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American
In this frame grab from video, Russian, Syrian and others gather next to an American military convoy stuck in the village of Khirbet Ammu, east of Qamishli city, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. Syrian media and activists say a Syrian was killed and another wounded in a rare clash between American troops and a group of government supporters in northeast Syria. (AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Assad, who has been able to keep his grip on the central government from Damascus throughout the war, continues to chip away at rebel-held territory with Russian help. The rebel hold has shrunk in size from more than half of the country at one point to a tiny strip in Idlib province by the Turkish border now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many areas recovered by the government are a wasteland of wrecked buildings. Few refugees have dared to return, and reconstruction efforts are on hold, pending a political resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\t