Syria conflict rages on as war enters eighth year

Syria's lacerating conflict entered its eighth year on Thursday with the country riven by international power struggles. 

The bloodshed, which has devastated huge swathes of the country since it started on March 15, 2011 when Bashar al Assad's regime cracked down on mostly peaceful protests, has splintered into ever more complicated conflicts.

While Turkish Armed Forces together with the Free Syrian Army encircle Afrin, Russian-backed regime forces continue to pound shrinking opposition areas near Damascus.

In the latest fighting, Ankara-backed forces launched a bombardment of YPG targets in Afrin and closed in on the main town. The YPG is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, which Turkey, the US and the EU all consider to be a terrorist organisation. 

The development came as regime forces, backed by Moscow, broke into a key town in the beleaguered opposition enclave of eastern Ghouta late on Wednesday, driving further into the last opposition bastion outside Damascus.

TRT World's Soraya Lennie returns to the place where the Syrian conflict all began, in Daraa.

What's next?

The capture of eastern Ghouta, which seems inevitable, will mark another milestone in Assad's effort to crush the revolution as the war enters its eighth year with Russia and Iran still firmly behind the regime leader.

It grew out of popular protests and evolved into a civil war after Assad responded with force. It has laid waste to swathes of Syria, helped the rise of Daesh, fed sectarianism, and seen the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the 1980s in a war that has killed at least half a million people.

At its nadir in 2015, the Syrian regime held less than a fifth of Syria. Russia's air force arrived to turn the tide in September of that year, working closely with Iranian and Iran-backed forces spearheaded by Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been battling in support of Assad since 2012.

After defeating militants in Aleppo in 2016, Assad and his allies swept across Syria in 2017, recovering territory all the way to the Iraqi border from Daesh's crumbling "caliphate." 

Assad now holds some 58 percent of Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), including the main cities, the coast, and an expanse of desert west of the Euphrates River.

With unreserved backing from Iran and Russia, Assad has steadily recovered ground from opposition backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey.

Future role of Assad

Any serious discussion about Assad's future has been off the table for some time: Western and Arab states that backed the opposition sidestepped the issue entirely in recent recommendations to the moribund UN-led political track.

The West still hopes Russia will bring pressure to bear on Assad, and is withholding reconstruction aid until a transition is in place.

But many Syria analysts say that for Russia there is no dependable alternative to Assad, who has proven adept at playing his two allies off against each other.

Civilian suffering 

International efforts have consistently failed to stop one of the deadliest wars of the century while the UN says as of February, more than 5.6 million Syrians have fled the country and 6.1 million people are displaced internally.

In the opposition-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, more than 1,220 civilians – a fifth of them children – have been killed since the Syrian regime launched a ferocious air and ground offensive on February 18.

While the past few months saw the collapse of Daesh's so-called "caliphate," world powers have since sought to carve out increased influence in the region.

TRT World 's Francis Collings tells the story of a family trying to survive in the enclave.

Turkey's Afrin operation

Ankara, which launched a border security mission to clear the enclave of Afrin from the YPG and Daesh on January 20, vowed on Wednesday that its encirclement of the main city "will have been completed by the evening," a Turkish presidency source said.

The US-backed YPG holds oil-rich territory in northeastern Syria, covering 30 percent of the country.

On Wednesday, Turkish bombing raids neutralised 10 militants loyal to the Syrian regime, which has deployed pro-regime militias to the fray after the YPG asked for help.

The Britain-based SOHR said on Wednesday that Turkey-led forces controlled 70 percent of Afrin and its surroundings, after liberating several villages.

'Anything that moves' 

On the outskirts of Damascus, hundreds of kilometres south of Afrin, another humanitarian emergency was unfolding in eastern Ghouta.

The Observatory said regime forces had penetrated into the town of Hammuriyeh in the enclave and were able to take control of parts of it amid heavy bombardment.

On Wednesday, an AFP correspondent saw a man in the doorway of a building holding the bodies of his two dead children.

A doctor in the area said rescue teams could not get to victims because of the intensity of the bombardment.

"The wounded are on the roads. We can't move them. The war planes are targeting anything that moves," Ismail al Khateeb said.

Evacuations in eastern Ghouta

The UN has called for urgent medical evacuations for more than 1,000 people who desperately need medical treatment outside the besieged area.

A trickle of evacuations from eastern Ghouta's largest town Douma began on Tuesday under a deal with militants, and more patients were allowed out on Wednesday.

At a Red Crescent centre in Douma on Wednesday morning, people crowded around buses and ambulances to be evacuated.

Among them, 18-year-old Omran stood leaning on crutches. Badly wounded two years ago in bombardment on eastern Ghouta, he was missing his left leg, right arm, and left eye.

"We haven't been able to treat some of these cases for more than a year," said Mohammed al Marhum, a doctor.

The patients were transported to the regime-controlled Wafideen checkpoint on the edges of eastern Ghouta.

The Observatory said more than 220 people, including 60 patients had left the opposition enclave in two days of evacuations.

Tightening grip 

The UN Security Council demanded a 30-day truce last month to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations from eastern Ghouta.

Such evacuations in Syria typically see people taken out of a besieged area for care, and then transported back in after treatment.

The Syrian regime's assault on eastern Ghouta has split the enclave into three sections, each controlled by different groups.

The regime has reportedly been pursuing separate tracks of negotiations to secure local truces or evacuations from each zone.

The Russian military said the situation in Douma had "significantly stabilised" and an aid convoy of 20 vehicles was planned to enter the enclave on Thursday.

Fresh regime and Russian bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 31 civilians in an isolated southern zone of eastern Ghouta, the Observatory said.

The regime's news agency SANA said five civilians died of their wounds after shelling on Damascus.

Moscow's strikes also killed a dozen militants from the Faylaq al Rahman faction controlling the area, including two top commanders, the monitor said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that groups in eastern Ghouta were planning to stage a chemical attack to give the US-led coalition the pretext to strike Damascus.

“New provocations with the use of chemical weapons are being prepared - performances will be organised in eastern Ghouta, among others,” Lavrov told reporters on Wednesday.

“Under this pretext there are plans to use force by the US coalition including against the Syrian capital,” he said, adding that he hoped “such irresponsible plans will not be realised”.