Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, almost half a million Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a million injured and nearly half the country's prewar population of 25 million have been displaced from their homes. What became known as the “Arab Spring” in 2011, toppled presidents of Tunisian, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and is ongoing. Peaceful protests also erupted in Syria, but the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, defectors from the military announced the formation of the “Free Syrian Army”, a rebel group aiming to overthrow the government, and Syria began to slide into civil war. Since the Free Syrian Army formed, many new rebel groups have joined the fighting in Syria, including ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, Iran-backed Hezbollah, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Arguable, foreign involvement has playe