What’s happening in Syria? A simple guide

Syria’s civil war is back in the spotlight after a new rebel coalition launched a surprise attack, sweeping into the country’s second largest city, Aleppo.

Syria’s civil war is back in the spotlight after a new rebel coalition launched a surprise attack, sweeping into the country’s second largest city, Aleppo. The offensive is the first time opposition forces have seized territory in Aleppo since 2016, shattering the stalemate of a war that never formally ended. The renewed conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 and sent nearly 6 million refugees out of the country, also has wide ramifications across the region and beyond. Here’s what you need to know. At the height of the Arab Spring in 2011, pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets in Syria calling for the ouster of its authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad. The protesters were met with deadly force. As Assad’s forces crushed the pro-democracy movement, an armed opposition began to form made up of small organic militias and some defectors from the Syrian military.