Syrian Civil War 2011-2012 - Societa italiana di storia militare

Hezbollah 147 killed [2][3]
Foreign Mujahideen 57killed [14]
Iranian Basij 85 killed [2][3]
19,867 [30] –20,198 [34] Syrians killed overall (opposition claims)**
212 foreign civilians (see here) and 2 Turkish F4 Phantom pilots killed
1.5 million displaced and refugees [35]
*Number possibly higher due to the opposition counting rebels that were not defectors as civilians. [36]
**Numbers do not include foreign combatants from both sides or Shabiha militiamen who have been killed.
The Syrian civil war, [37][38][39][40] also referred to as the Syrian uprising, [41][42] is an ongoing internal armed conflict in Syria. The
conflict began on 15 March 2011 with public demonstrations as part of the wider Arab Spring and developed into a nationwide
uprising, and a civil war in 2012. Protesters have demanded the end to nearly five decades of Ba’ath Party rule, as well as the
resignation of Bashar al-Assad. In the spring of 2011, the Syrian government deployed the Syrian Army to quell the uprising. Several
cities have been besieged, [43][44] and soldiers were reportedly ordered to open fire on civilians. [45] According to witnesses, soldiers who
refused to open fire on civilians were summarily executed by the Syrian Army. [46] Civilians and army defectors began forming
fighting units, and unified under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, fighting in an increasingly organized fashion; however, the
civilian component of the armed opposition lacks an organized leadership. The Syrian government characterizes the insurgency as
"armed terrorist groups". [47] According to various sources, including the United Nations, up to 19,865–27,285 people have been killed,
of which about half were civilians, but also including 10,140 armed combatants from both the Syrian army and rebel forces [30][48][49][50]
and up to 1,765 opposition protesters. [32][33] According to the UN, between 500,000 and 1 million Syrians have been displaced within
the country. [citation needed] To escape the violence, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Iraqi
Kurdistan, [51] Jordan, [52] Lebanon and Turkey. [53][54] Iraq has closed its border to Syrian refugees, while no Syrian refugees have yet
arrived at the Israeli border. [55] In addition, tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned, and there have been reports of
widespread torture in the government's prisons. [56][57] International organizations have also accused the government and Shabiha of
using civilians as human shields, [58][59] and of intentionally targeting civilians. [60] The Arab League, United States, European Union,
GCC states, and other countries have condemned the use of violence against the protesters. China and Russia have thwarted attempts
to agree to a UN resolution condemning Assad's actions, [61] and advised against sanctions, saying that such methods could escalate
into foreign intervention. [62] The Arab League suspended Syria's membership over the government's response to the crisis, [63] but sent
an observer mission in December 2011, as part of its proposal for peaceful resolution of the crisis. A further attempt to resolve the
crisis has been made through the appointment of Kofi Annan as a special envoy. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had repeatedly
stated that the Syrian conflict could emerge into an "all-out civil war". [64] On 15 July 2012 the International Committee of the Red
Cross assessed the Syrian conflict as a "non-international armed conflict" (the ICRC's legal term for civil war), thus applying the
international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions in Syria. [65][66]
Contents
• 1 Background
o 1.1 History
o 1.2 Socio-economics
o 1.3 Human rights
• 2 Uprising and civil war
o 2.1 Summary
o 2.2 Protests
o 2.3 Domestic response
2.3.1 Concessions
2.3.2 Censorship
2.3.3 Violence and human rights violations
2.3.4 Other
o 2.4 Protests and military sieges
o 2.5 Formation of the Free Syrian Army
o 2.6 Protests and armed clashes
o 2.7 Ceasefire attempt
o 2.8 Renewed fighting
o 2.9 Battles of Damascus and Aleppo
• 3 Parties in the conflict
o 3.1 Syrian National Council
o 3.2 Local coordination committees
o 3.3 Free Syrian Army and other armed opposition groups
o 3.4 Kurdish stance
o 3.5 Shabiha
o 3.6 Sectarianism
o 3.7 Foreign involvement
3.7.1 Support for the opposition
3.7.2 Support for the Syrian government
3.7.2.1 Russia
3.7.2.2 Iran
3.7.2.3 China
3.7.2.4 Other countries
• 4 Syrian refugees