Who's fighting and why in the revived Syrian war

Once a French-run mandate, Syria became independent after World War II.

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WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF SYRIA'S CIVIL WAR?

In 1966, military officers belonging to the Alawite minority took power. That assured the domination of the group, whose faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, in a country where about 74 per cent of the people are Sunni Muslim.

Syria's population includes sizeable Christian, Druze and Kurdish communities as well.

Long-time president Hafez al-Assad brutally suppressed dissent, and was succeeded by his son Bashar in 2000.

As part of the wave of pro-democracy unrest known as the Arab Spring, protests erupted in Syria in March 2011.

Using his father's playbook, Mr. Bashar al-Assad crushed them. He unleashed attack aircraft, helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks against the lightly armed rebels who began to organize.

The conflict broke largely along sectarian lines, with Syria's Alawites supporting Mr. Assad and Sunnis backing the opposition.

Foreign powers - including Russia, Iran, the US and Turkey - saw the war as an opportunity to extend their influence in a country that straddles the region's geopolitical fault lines.

Foreign intervention increased after the Al-Qaeda spin-off ISIS, which aims to create a puritanical Islamic society, used the turmoil to conquer territory in Syria and in Iraq.

The final ISIS stronghold fell in 2019.

WHO ARE THE MAIN DOMESTIC PLAYERS TODAY?