Protests in Syria

The last buses carrying rebel fighters and their families left  a besieged district of Syria's Homs yesterday, completing a deal to bring the whole city back under government control for the first time since the start of the war.

Syrian opposition forces in eastern Aleppo have reached a ceasefire deal with Bashar al-Assad forces to evacuate civilians in the besieged city. 

According to a source from the opposition forces, the move came after Turkey-brokered talks with Russia that were concluded at 7 p.m. local time. 

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake all of Syria from "terrorists," hours before a truce brokered by Russia and the United States was due to take hold on Sept. 12.

Speaking in Daraya, a former rebel stronghold recently surrendered to the government, Assad said "the Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," state media reported.

France on April 1 accused the Syrian regime of violating a fragile ceasefire in the five-year war that has devastated the country.

The French foreign ministry also accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime of trying to undermine efforts by the international community to resolve the conflict.

The White House on March 31 indicated Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should not be part of any transitional unity government, echoing views from regime opponents inside the war-shattered country.
 

Al-Qaeda fighters and allied jihadists clashed with a rebel faction overnight in northwestern Syria after storming its weapons depot, the group and a monitor said on March 13.

In tweets posted in the morning on March 13, Division 13 said it had failed to push back an attack by al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front, and allied faction Jund al-Aqsa.

At least 35 civilians were killed and 120 were injured when a Syrian army fighter jet crashed into a busy marketplace in the rebel-held northwestern town of Ariha on August 3, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Hundreds of members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood have returned from exile, hoping to rebuild a movement which was crushed decades ago at home and is deemed a terrorist organisation by leading Arab states. 

Does anyone remember how the war in Syria started?

It was the first months of the Arab Spring. By mid-February 2011, both the Tunisian and Egyptian leaders had been ousted from power. 

More than 76,000 people were killed in Syria's brutal conflict in 2014, making it the bloodiest year yet in the country's nearly four-year war, a monitor said on Dec. 1.
      
The conflict that began in March 2011 shows no sign of abating, with President Bashar al-Assad making a rare public appearance on a front line overnight to bolster soldiers and pro-government fighters.