March 2011: The regime arrests and tortures children and shoots on demonstrators. Countrywide protests begin.
October 2011: Bashar al-Assad permits the intelligence services, army and pro-government militias to pursue a more brutal crackdown on Syrian civilians. Opposition forces join together under the Syrian National Council.
2012: The regime adopts a new strategy and puts cities under siege. The consequences are starvation and lack of medical services.
January 2013: Millions of Syrians are displaced by the war, mainly within Syria itself, as well as in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
August 2013: After a series of small chemical weapons attacks the regime kills over 1.000 men, women and children in one day with a Sarin gas attack outside Damascus.
June 2014: The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria declares the establishment of a caliphate, ruling over 8 million people with strict Islamic law.
Spring 2015: Hundreds of thousands of Syrians flee from the region travelling across Turkey and along the Balkan route to western and northern Europe.
September 2015: Russia becomes Assads closest ally alongside the Iranian regime and Hezbollah in Lebanon and attacks opposition forces with their air forces.
November 2017: The so-called Islamic State is defeated by an international coalition in cooperation with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
June 2020: The Syrian Regime wins back a large part of its territory. Over half of the Syrian population is still displaced.