President Bashar al-Assad’s government rules about 70% of the country, having fought back rebel forces from the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, and regained control over Syria’s other big cities such as Aleppo and Homs.
Syria war began with a brutal crackdown on protests in the Arab Spring of 2011, but escalated into a military conflict that autumn, when sections of Assad’s forces began to defect and take up arms against the government.