ISIS and Syria DeQoded: My Enemy’s Enemy is My Best Friend

Four and a half years later, it’s still difficult to tell who’s fighting whom in Syria.

Four-and-a-half years of armed conflict in Syria. But who’s fighting whom?

Four-and-a-half years of armed conflict in Syria. But who’s fighting whom? In 2011, Syrian authorities arrested and tortured some teenagers for painting revolutionary slogans on a school wall. Protesters took to the streets and clashed with security forces and a nationwide movement began. As opposition forces took up arms, the country descended into a brutal civil war.

But what started as a fight for democracy descended quickly into a second war - this one against the Islamic State.

According to the United Nations, 90,000 people were killed by June 2013. By August next year, it was over double that number at 191,000 people dead. By August 2015, over 250,000 people had lost their lives in the conflict.