War huh. What is it good for?

I've talked about Syrian refugees in previous posts, but I haven't discussed the conflict that has killed over 100,000 and forced 2 million from their homeland. 

Syria has been fighting a civil war that began with protests in Demascus in March, 2011. For a more detailed timeline of the 
events precipitating the outbreak of war, click here. Syrian protests were mostly peaceful, but protests in neighboring countries during the "Arab Spring' were not. To prevent a violent uprising, Bashar al-Assad repressed activists with violence and imprisonment, which of course lead to a violent uprising. Assad is part of the socialist Ba'ath party which has ruled Syria since 1949, and was considered by Western powers to be a stable dictator before protests broke out. Many leaders want him to be removed from power, but they fear the power vacuum that he would leave, especially with ISIS fighting for power.

Assad's soldiers holding the Syrian flag

Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons against fighters and civilians as well as other war crimes. For his part, Assad defends his actions and asserts that he and his army are protecting Syria from "new colonization" by the west on one side, and "dark" forces of religious extremism on the other. 

There are about 70,000-100,000 rebels fighting against the Assad regime, many of which are ex-Syrian soldiers. The rebel army (of which there are many factions) formed when seven Syrian military officers released a video on YouTube posted in July 2011 in which they declared that they had defected from the military and were forming a new group called the "Free Syrian Army" to fight against the Assad regime. 

Rebel fighters holding a Free Syrian army flag

The Free Syrian Army consists of military defectors, civilians, as well as members of Assad's Ba'ath party. In addition to these native fighters, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy estimates that there are also 2,000-5,500 foreign fighters actively fighting in rebel Syrian armies.  The Supreme Military Council unites the rebel groups, but so far no single, central leader has emerged. 

Many foreign nations and sympathetic Sunni groups from neighboring nations are assisting rebel groups by supplying weapons and training in order to "marginalize the extremists and assert their own authority" according to Elizabeth O'Bagy, a senior research analyst for the Institute for the Study of War. 

Sadly, the rebels have also been accused of committing human rights abuses including summary killing and torturing captives, as well as using chemical weapons including the nerve agent sarin. 

The final player in the Syrian conflict is ISIL (also known as IS and ISIS), a terrorist organization known for mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and dedicated to a campaign of shocking brutality. 

The goal of ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is to form a hardline Sunni Islamic state. The group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has 30,000 fighters to spread the group's brutal 'convert or die' campaign.  ISIL is funded by a well-organized tax system, international donors, and from the sale of oil from wells in areas under their control. 

Lucy al-Khatteeb, a fellow at the Brookings Doha Center who has been doing research into ISIL's oil smuggling says the group has control of five oil fields of 40-70 wells each in Iraq, and earns about $1.2 million each day from selling 25,000 bpd at $25-$60 per barrel.  This large and steady cash flow allows the group to continue committing atrocities and fighting against Assad and rebels groups.

It is from this complex fighting that Syrian refugees flee, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like the violence it will stop any time soon.