Who is syrian rebels

SDF sources say Turkey has stepped up attacks using drones and artillery fired from Turkish territory targeting YPG positions in the last two weeks. Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox. Turkey-backed rebels say finished preparations to fight YPG Rebels say await Turkish orders, scope of incursion unclear.

More from Reuters. Sign up for our newsletter Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox. The Syrian army, aided by Russian air power and Iranian militias, retook control of the strategic province that borders Jordan and Israel's Golan Heights to the west in the summer of Russian-brokered deals at the time forced rebels to hand over heavy weapons and return state institutions in the enclave but kept away the army from entering their neighbourhoods.

State media said terrorists had fired at the main hospital in Deraa and the army had evacuated hundreds of fleeing families from rebel held neighbourhoods. Thousands of former rebels had chosen to stay with their families rather than head to remaining rebel-held areas in northern Syria, where tens of thousands of others displaced from recaptured areas had gathered. The province saw a widespread boycott of last May's polls that extended Assad's presidency in what officials saw as a defiance of state authority.

Almost 12, children have been killed or wounded, according to the UN children's agency Unicef. The government's key supporters have been Russia and Iran, while Turkey, Western powers and several Gulf Arab states have backed the opposition to varying degrees over the past decade. Russia - which had military bases in Syria before the war - launched an air campaign in support of Mr Assad in that has been crucial in turning the tide of the war in the government's favour. The Russian military says its strikes only target "terrorists" but activists say they regularly kill mainstream rebels and civilians.

Iran is believed to have deployed hundreds of troops and spent billions of dollars to help Mr Assad. Thousands of Shia Muslim militiamen armed, trained and financed by Iran - mostly from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, but also Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen - have also fought alongside the Syrian army.

But they have prioritised non-lethal assistance since jihadists became the dominant force in the armed opposition. A US-led global coalition has also carried out air strikes and deployed special forces in Syria since to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF capture territory once held by IS militants in the north-east. Turkey is a major supporter of the opposition, but its focus has been on using rebel factions to contain the Kurdish YPG militia that dominates the SDF, accusing it of being an extension of a banned Kurdish rebel group in Turkey.

Turkish troops and allied rebels have seized stretches of territory along Syria's northern border and intervened to stop an all-out assault by government forces on the last opposition stronghold of Idlib.

Saudi Arabia , which is keen to counter Iranian influence, armed and financed the rebels at the start of the war, as did the kingdom's Gulf rival, Qatar. Israel , meanwhile, has been so concerned by what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment" in Syria and shipments of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah and other Shia militias that it has conducted air strikes with increasing frequency in an attempt to thwart them.

As well as causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, more than 2. More than half of Syria's pre-war population of 22 million have fled their homes. Some 6. One million Syrian refugee children have been born in exile. As of January , More than 12 million were struggling to find enough food each day and half a million children were chronically malnourished. In the past year the humanitarian crisis has been compounded by an unprecedented economic downturn, which saw the value of Syria's currency decline drastically and food prices reach historic highs.

In addition, the country has suffered a Covid outbreak, whose true extent is not known because of limited testing capacity and a devastated healthcare system. Entire neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure across the country also remain in ruins after a decade of fighting. UN satellite analysis suggested that more than 35, structures were damaged or destroyed in Aleppo city alone before it was recaptured by the government in late And despite their protected status, attacks on separate medical facilities had been documented by Physicians for Human Rights as of March , resulting in the deaths of medical personnel.