The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, along with domestic and foreign allies, various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government and each other in varying combinations. The war is the second deadliest of the 21st century; the unrest in Syria, part of a wider wave of the 2011 Arab Spring protests, grew out of discontent with the Syrian government and escalated to an armed conflict after protests calling for Assad's removal were violently suppressed. The war, which began on 15 March 2011 with major unrest in Damascus and Aleppo, is being fought by several factions: the Syrian Armed Forces and its international allies, a loose alliance of Sunni opposition rebel groups, Salafi jihadist groups, the mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with a number of countries in the region and beyond being either directly involved or providing support to one or another faction.

Iran and Hezbollah support the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Armed Forces militarily, with Russia conducting airstrikes and other military operations since September 2015. The U. S.-led international coalition, established in 2014 with the declared purpose of countering ISIL, has conducted airstrikes against ISIL as well as some against government and pro-government targets. They have deployed special forces and artillery units to engage ISIL on the ground. Since 2015, the U. S. has supported the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria and its armed wing, the SDF, materially and logistically. Turkey has been directly involved in operations against the Syrian government since August 2016, not only participating in airstrikes against ISIL alongside the U. S.-led coalition, but actively supporting the Syrian opposition and occupying large swaths of northwestern Syria while engaging in significant ground combat with the SDF, ISIL, the Syrian government. Between 2011 and 2017, fighting from the Syrian Civil War spilled over into Lebanon as opponents and supporters of the Syrian government traveled to Lebanon to fight and attack each other on Lebanese soil, with ISIL and Al-Nusra engaging the Lebanese Army.

Furthermore, while neutral, Israel has exchanged fire with Hezbollah and Iranian forces, whose presence in southwestern Syria it views as a threat. It has carried out repeated strikes in the rest of Syria since the start of the war targeting Syrian government forces and alleged Iranian and Hezbollah militants. International organizations have criticized all sides involved, including the Ba'athist Syrian government, ISIL, opposition rebel groups, Russia and the U. S.-led coalition of severe human rights massacres. The conflict has caused a major refugee crisis. Over the course of the war, a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting has continued; the secular Ba'ath Syrian Regional Branch government came to power through a successful coup d'état in 1963. For several years Syria went through additional coups and changes in leadership, until in March 1971, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, declared himself President.

The secular Syrian Regional Branch remained the dominant political authority in what had been a one-party state until the first multi-party election to the People's Council of Syria was held in 2012. On 31 January 1973, Hafez al-Assad implemented a new constitution. Unlike previous constitutions, this one did not require that the president of Syria be a Muslim, leading to fierce demonstrations in Hama and Aleppo organized by the Muslim Brotherhood and the ulama; the government survived a series of armed revolts by Islamists members of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. Upon Hafez al-Assad's death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected as President of Syria. Bashar and his wife Asma, a Sunni Muslim born and educated in Britain inspired hopes for democratic reforms. President Al-Assad maintained in 2017 that no'moderate opposition' to his rule exists, that all opposition forces are jihadists intent on destroying his secular leadership; the total population in July 2018 was estimated at 19,454,263 people.

Socioeconomic inequality increased after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his years, it accelerated after Bashar al-Assad came to power. With an emphasis on the service sector, these policies benefited a minority of the nation's population people who had connections with the government, members of the Sunni merchant class of Damascus and Aleppo. In 2010, Syria's nominal GDP per capita was only $2,834, comparable to Sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria and far lower than its neighbors such as Lebanon, with an annual growth rate of 3.39%, below most other developing countries. The country also

The Sewee or "Islanders" were a Native American tribe that lived in present-day South Carolina in North America. In 1670, the English founded the coastal town of Charleston in the Carolina Colony on land belonging to the Sewee; the town flourished from trade with neighboring tribes. The Sewee exchanged their deer hides for manufactured beads from the English. However, the Sewee, who received only five percent of what buyers in England paid for their deer skins, felt that this business was unfair. Upon noting that the English ships always came in at the same location, they were confident that it was the direct route to England, they believed that by rowing to the point on the horizon where the ships first appeared, they could reach England, once there, establish more profitable, direct trade. Therefore, the Sewee nation decided to build a navy. English land surveyor John Lawson witnessed the construction: "It was agreed upon to make an addition of their fleet by building more canoes, those to be of the best sort and biggest size as fit for their intended discovery.

Some Indians employed about making the canoes, others to hunting - everyone to the post he was most fit for, all endeavors towards an able fleet and cargo for Europe." – John LawsonMonths the Sewee had completed their navy of canoes, they filled the vessels with hides and their most valuable possessions. All able-bodied Sewee men and women took to the sea. Only the children, the sick and the elderly were left behind; as the Sewee entered open ocean, high seas engulfed their canoes. The survivors were rescued by a passing English slave ship only to be sold into slavery in the West Indies. Akenatsi Catawba Cheraw Moneton Mosopelea Saponi Tutelo Waccamaw

Praporshik Aleksandr Mikhailovich Pishvanov was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories. After an unsuccessful fight against the Communist takeover of Russia, he became an American citizen in 1928, his engineering skills were useful to both Sikorsky Aviation and to Seversky Aircraft Corporation from 1926 onwards. In 1942, he helped. Pishvanov's interest in aviation ended only with his death in New York City in 1964. Aleksandr Pishvanov was born in Novocherkassk, the Russian Empire on 21 October 1893, into a farm family of a dozen children, his family raised horses for the Russian cavalry, wheat. Young Aleksandr disliked both horses and farming, so he gained a degree as an engineer. Pishvanov became interested in aviation. After graduation, he cadged a ride in an airplane in 1912, he subsequently trained as a pilot at the Odessa Aero Club, was granted Aviator's Certificate No. 190 in October 1913. Pishvanov enlisted just after hostilities broke out, began World War I as a Nijnichin in the cavalry, serving through Summer 1915, winning all four classes of the Cross of Saint George.

He transferred to aviation. In Autumn 1915, he began pilot's training at the Sevastopol Military Flying School, he completed training on the Farman F.22 pusher on 28 January 1916, progressed to learning the Voisin pusher. He finished this training on 26 March 1916. In early May 1916, he was posted to the 27th Corps Detachment as a pilot of two-seater reconnaissance aircraft. On 11 June and his aerial observer used a Voisin to launch a pointblank attack on an enemy Albatros in the vicinity of Krevo-Kamenka at 2,000 meters altitude. Though the Albatros dropped out of range and was flown behind its own lines, the aerial victory went unconfirmed. Two months Pishvanov was sent to the Moscow Military Flying School for fighter conversion training to further develop his skills, he graduated qualified on Nieuports on 9 July. He was posted on 7 August 1916 to the 10th Fighter Detachment near Volhynia at its commander's request, on the southwestern end of the Eastern Front. Assigned to fly Nieuport 9s armed with a Lewis gun, Pishvanov flew his first fighter sortie on 2 October 1916.

In December, the 10th Fighter Detachment shifted to Galazi, Romania to fly guard over pontoon bridges over the Danube River, in an assignment that included no air-to-air combat. While attached to the 10th Fighter Detachment, he used a Nieuport 21 to shoot down five enemy planes between 21 March and 7 July 1917. After downing enemy two-seaters in the vicinity of Galați on both 21 and 28 March 1917, he was promoted to Ensign and awarded the Order of Saint Anne, Fourth Class. On 15 April, he staked it was unverified. On one mission during the Summer of 1917, Smirnov had a vodka-saturated watermelon lashed to his Nieuport's outer wing strut. While taking a flight to cool it, he took evasive action; the watermelon "bombed" the enemy trenches below. A report to the 10th Detachment from 10th Army noted: "Although the large bomb did not explode, it appears to have caused a great deal of confusion."Pishvanov found himself in a hard-fought aerial battle on 26 June 1917. He fought several opponents to a standoff despite a machine gun that temporarily jammed after his first firing pass having hand grenades thrown at him.

After seven attacks, he emerged the victor over a two-seater. He received the Order of Saint Stanilas Third Class. On 4 July, he fought in five clashes along the Siret River. In the last one, he scored his fourth confirmed victory when he downed an Austro-Hungarian reconnaissance craft, Hansa-Brandenburg C. I serial number 68.54, over Endependance, having raked the two-seater with a surprise burst of bullets from less than 40 meters range. On the morning of the 7th, he finished his victory tally by shooting down an enemy two-seater over Latinul, he chased it down from 4,400 meters to 1,200 meters. Ignoring a leg wound inflicted by the observer's gunfire, he destroyed it with a pointblank burst, he was awarded the Order of Saint George Fourth Class and the Order of Saint Vladimir Fourth Class with Swords and Bow for this action. On 9 July 1917, he was honored by the Supreme Commander in Chief's Order 599, which appointed Pishvanov a military pilot. On 11 July 1917, he was wounded in combat. Closing to his usual close range to fire, he was wounded.

Undaunted, Pishvanov chased the enemy plane back to its own territory. He returned to base, only to wreck his Nieuport, number N1890. On 5 September 1917, as a replacement for the craft in which he had scored all his victories, he was re-equipped with Nieuport 17 serial number N4191, he would fly this craft in September and October 1917. In December 1917, he was promoted to Poruchik. In December, in the wake of the October Revolution, Pishvanov would defect to his native Novocherkassk. During the Summer of 1919, Pishvanov began to fly a Sopwith Camel in operations of the 6th Aviation Detachment against the Red Army. However, as the Volunteer Army retreated as 1919 turned into 1920, the 6th Aviation Detachment was withdrawn to Grozny. To escape the surrounding Bolshevik forces, Pishvanov flew to newly independent Georgia and joined the Georgian Army, he found employment with an automobile company. When the Red Army invasion of Georgia came in early 1921, he escaped through Iran to Great Britain. There he served for a time a