Key Players in Syria’s Long-Running Civil War, Reignited by Shock Opposition Offensive

 A Syrian flag lies on the ground as opposition fighters stand on the tarmac of the Aleppo international airport, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.(AP)
A Syrian flag lies on the ground as opposition fighters stand on the tarmac of the Aleppo international airport, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.(AP)
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Key Players in Syria’s Long-Running Civil War, Reignited by Shock Opposition Offensive

 A Syrian flag lies on the ground as opposition fighters stand on the tarmac of the Aleppo international airport, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.(AP)
A Syrian flag lies on the ground as opposition fighters stand on the tarmac of the Aleppo international airport, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.(AP)

Syria’s long civil war has reclaimed global attention after opposition factions seized most of its largest city and dozens of nearby towns and villages.

The stunning advance on Aleppo by opposition forces came as several key players in the conflict have been distracted or weakened, triggering the heaviest clashes since a 2020 ceasefire brought relative calm to the country’s north.

Russian and Syrian forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes to try to limit the factions’ advances, inflicting heavy casualties.

Syria's civil war started in 2011 after a peaceful uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule. Five foreign powers have a military presence in the country including the US, Russia and Iran. Forces opposed to Assad, along with US-backed fighters, control more than a third of the country. Israel holds the Golan Heights, which it seized in its 1967 war with its Arab neighbors.

Here’s a look at the key players:

Syrian pro-government forces, backed by Russia and Iran

Syrian government troops have long controlled a large part of the country, thanks to allied forces dispatched by Russia and Iran.

Assad's forces control most of the major population centers, including the capital Damascus and cities in Syria's center, south and east.

The Syrian government's capture of Aleppo in late 2016 was a turning point in the conflict and their loss of the city in recent days is a major setback.

Iran's military advisers and proxy fighters have played a critical role in shoring up Assad's forces throughout the war. But Lebanon's Hezbollah group, which is backed by Iran, has been weakened in its recent war with Israel and Iran has been distracted by the conflict. On Monday, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias deployed to Syria to back the government’s counteroffensive.

Russia's military has supported Assad from the Mediterranean coast, where it maintains its only naval base outside the former Soviet Union, and at the Hmeimim air base in Latakia province, which is home to hundreds of Russian troops. But much of its attention and resources have been focused on its war in Ukraine.

Opposition groups, backed mainly by Türkiye

Anti-government forces are led by the opposition Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which long served as al-Qaeda's branch in Syria and is considered a terrorist group by the UN as well as countries including the US.

HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, its leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group's image, cutting ties with al-Qaeda, ditching hard-line officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance.

Other opposition groups include Noureddine el-Zinki, which was formerly backed by the US, before it joined the HTS-led alliance.

A Turkish-backed coalition of groups known as the Syrian National Army has attacked areas including the northern town of Tel Rifaat, controlled by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Chinese fighters from the Turkistan Islamic Party and Chechen fighters from the former Soviet Union have taken part in the battles in the country's northwest, according to Syrian opposition activists. Türkiye, which controls parts of northern Syria, will not say how many troops it has in the country.

Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the US

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed coalition of groups, controls large parts of eastern Syria.

The SDF has battled the ISIS group, capturing the last sliver of land held by the extremists in eastern Syria. About 900 American troops are stationed in Syria’s east to guard against a resurgence by the extremist group.

SDF forces still control several neighborhoods of Aleppo encircled by the opposition groups. Opposition activists have said their forces are willing to let those fighters cross to northeast Syria but it was not immediately clear if the Kurdish-led forces will do so.

Türkiye considers the principal Kurdish faction of the SDF to be linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it and allies regard as a terrorist group.



After the Ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank Palestinians Face More Israeli Barriers, Traffic and Misery

 Motorists line up at the Jaba checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP)
Motorists line up at the Jaba checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP)
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After the Ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank Palestinians Face More Israeli Barriers, Traffic and Misery

 Motorists line up at the Jaba checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP)
Motorists line up at the Jaba checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP)

Abdullah Fauzi, a banker from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, leaves home at 4 a.m. to reach his job by 8, and he's often late.

His commute used to take an hour — until Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after which Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military also ramped up raids against Palestinian fighters in the northern West Bank, and diverted its residents through seven new checkpoints, doubling Fauzi's time on the road.

Now it's gotten worse.

Since the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas took effect, Fauzi’s drive to the West Bank's business and administrative hub, Ramallah, has become a convoluted, at least four-hour wiggle through steep lanes and farm roads as Israel further tightens the noose around Palestinian cities in measures it considers essential to guard against militant attacks.

“You can fly to Paris while we're not reaching our homes," the 42-year-old said from the Atara checkpoint outside Ramallah last week, as Israeli soldiers searched scores of cars, one by one.

“Whatever this is, they've planned it well," he said. "It's well-designed to make our life hell.”

A ceasefire begets violence

As the truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Jan. 19, radical Israeli settlers — incensed over an apparent end to the war and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages — rampaged through West Bank towns, torching cars and homes.

Two days later, Israeli forces with drones and attack helicopters descended on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, long a center of militant activity.

More checkpoints started going up between Palestinian cities, slicing up the occupied West Bank and creating choke points the Israeli army can shut off on a whim. Crossings that had been open 24/7 started closing during morning and evening rush hours, upturning the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

New barriers — earthen mounds, iron gates — multiplied, pushing Palestinian cars off well-paved roads and onto rutted paths through open fields. What was once a soldier’s glance and head tilt became international border-like inspections.

Israel says the measures are to prevent Hamas from opening a new front in the West Bank. But many experts suspect the crackdown has more to do with assuaging settler leaders like Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and an important ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has threatened to topple the government if Israel does not restart the war in Gaza.

“Israel now has a free hand to pursue what it has wanted to in the West Bank for a long time: settlement expansion, annexation,” said Tahani Mustafa, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “It was considered a potential trade-off.”

Asked why Israel launched the crackdown during the ceasefire, the Israeli military said politicians gave the order in part over concerns that the release of Palestinian prisoners — in swaps for Israeli hostages held by Hamas — could raise tensions in the West Bank.

The checkpoints all over the West Bank, it said, were “to ensure safe movement and expand inspections."

“Checkpoints are a tool we use in the fight against terror, enabling civilian movement while providing a layer of screening to prevent terrorists from escaping,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman.

Life disrupted

To spend rush hour at an Israeli checkpoint is to hear of the problems it has brought — Palestinian families divided, money lost, trade disrupted, sick people kept from doctors.

Ahmed Jibril said not even his position as manager of emergency services for the Palestinian Red Crescent protects him.

“We’re treated like any other private car,” he said, describing dozens of cases in which Israeli soldiers forced ambulances to wait for inspection when they were responding to emergency calls.

In one case, on Jan. 21, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a 46-year-old woman who had suffered a heart attack in the southern city of Hebron died while waiting to cross a checkpoint.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of that specific incident. But citing Hamas' use of civilian infrastructure like hospitals to conceal fighters, the army acknowledged subjecting medical teams to security checks “while trying to reduce the delay as much as possible in order to mitigate harm.”

The UN humanitarian agency, or OCHA, reported that, as of last Nov. 28, Israel had 793 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, 228 more than before the war in Gaza.

The agency hasn’t updated the tally since the ceasefire, but its latest report noted a surge in “suffocating restrictions” that are “tearing communities apart and largely paralyzing daily life.”

A bubble bursts

With its upscale restaurants and yoga studios, Ramallah gained a reputation in past conflicts for being something of a well-to-do bubble where cafe-hopping residents can feel immune to the harsh realities of the occupation.

Now its residents, struck in numbingly long lines to run simple errands, feel under siege.

“All we want to do is go home,” said Mary Elia, 70, stalled with her husband for nearly two hours at the Ein Senia checkpoint north of Ramallah last week, as they made their way home to east Jerusalem from their daughter's house. “Are we meant to never see our grandchildren?”

A national obsession

Roll down the window at a bottlenecked checkpoint and the same soothing female voice can be heard emanating from countless car radios, reeling off every Israeli checkpoint, followed by “salik” — Arabic for open — or “mughlaq,” closed, based on the conditions of the moment.

These reports recently beat out weather broadcasts for top slot on the West Bank radio lineup.

Almost every Palestinian driver seems able to expound on the latest checkpoint operating hours, the minutiae of soldiers' mood changes and fiercely defended opinions about the most efficient detours.

“I didn’t ask for a Ph.D. in this,” said Yasin Fityani, 30, an engineer stuck in line to leave Ramallah for work, scrolling through new checkpoint-dedicated WhatsApp groups filled with footage of soldiers installing cement barriers and fistfights erupting over someone cutting the line.

Lost time, lost money

It was the second time in as many weeks that his boss at the Jerusalem bus company called off his morning shift because he was late.

Worse still for Nidal Al-Maghribi, 34, it was too dangerous to back out of the queue of frustrated motorists waiting to pass Jaba checkpoint, which severs his east Jerusalem neighborhood from the rest of the city. Another full day's work wasted in his car.

“What am I supposed to tell my wife?” he asked, pausing to keep his composure. “This job is how I feed my kids.”

Palestinian trucks, packed with perishable food and construction materials, are not spared the scrutiny. Soldiers often ask truckers to pull over and unload their cargo for inspection. Fruit rots. Textiles and electronics get damaged.

The delays raise prices, further choking a Palestinian economy that shrank 28% last year as a result of punitive Israeli policies imposed after Hamas' attack, said Palestinian Economy Minister Mohammad Alamour. Israel's ban on most Palestinian workers has left 30% of the West Bank's workforce jobless.

“These barriers do everything except their stated purpose of providing security,” Alamour said.

“They pressure the Palestinian people and the Palestinian economy. They make people want to leave their country.”