Seven years of death from the air: Who's bombing whom in Syria?
A total of 16 international powers have launched air strikes on Syria since the start of the conflict. Seven years on, the bombs keep falling
A man carries an infant injured during government bombing in Hamouria, Eastern Ghouta region on 19 February 2018 (AFP)
Russia commenced strikes on Syria, in support of Assad, with strikes on Islamic State fighters in Homs, Hama and Latakia provinces in late September 2015. The strikes reportedly came at the request of the Assad government as Moscow states they would target militant groups.
But the US-led coalition quickly expressed concern it was also targeting anti-Assad rebel groups.
Moscow's intervention, after a military build-up in Assad’s coastal heartlands, added another dimension to the already complex web of countries striking Syria, stoking fears of a more deadly regional or international conflict.
No party to have joined the Syrian conflict has done so without killing civilians, but the scale of deaths caused by Russia’s campaign is far higher than that of the coalition. According to Airwars, it has killed at least 11,250 civilians . . .
. . . amid claims it has, unlike the coalition, deliberately targeted civilians and the infrastructure of civilian life, including markets, hospitals and homes, especially in the battle for Aleppo in late 2016.
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Assad's forces
Air forces loyal to Assad were mostly declared “inoperational” at the start of the conflict and operations were restricted to loyal pilots from the president's Alawite sect.
However, the battle for Aleppo in 2012 saw an all out air war wages by government’s air forces against rebel fighters with tens of thousands of air strikes, including using cargo planes and helicopters pressed into service to drop barrel bombs.
Iran's role
Tehran’s antiquated air force has not launched strikes in Syria, but Tehran has sent military advisers, volunteer militias and, reportedly, hundreds of fighters from its Quds force, the overseas arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), to support Syrian government forces.
It has also reported to have supplied thousands of tonnes of weapons and munitions to Assad’s forces and pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which is fighting on Syria’s side.
Note: Iran, Russia, Syria's brutal dictator Assad and the Lebanese terrorist group Hizb'Allah have troops there fighting the rebels.