The 27 things you need to know before tweeting about the Syrian Civil War

1. It’s really complicated. Think the Syrian civil war is Assad and friends vs ISIS? A staggering 7,000 organisations are believed to be playing a role in the Syria conflict.

2. Syria has been a republic, part of the Ottoman Empire and part of Vichy France, but never a democracy. The country we know as Syria spun out of the settlement after World War 1, when the allied powers divided up territories formerly part of the Ottoman Empire. Syria was ‘French Mandate’ till WWII; fought over till the 1950s and then became Ba’athist in a coup. It has stayed that way pretty much ever since. When former Ba’athist President Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad inherited power. The first multi-candidate elections in decades were held in 2014 — only, without candidates or voters from opposition groups, in opposition held areas or twenty-one of the twenty-four candidates who had applied.

3. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad never expected to be anything of the kind. Bashar had an older brother, Bassel, who was widely expected to take power on the death of former President Hafez al-Assad. Bassel died in 1994 after crashing his Maserati (or Mercedes — accounts vary) at 150 miles per hour. Younger brother Bashar was recalled from London, where he was studying for a Phd in ophthalmology.

4. The Russians built Syria’s first army. Syria has a long history of mutual support and relations with Russia, which dates back to Russia’s role as a counterbalance to the Ottoman Empire. The French left in 1946. Syria signed a secret pact with Russia, under which Soviet support was secured for the foundation of a new national army. In return, Syria became Russia’s naval base on the Mediterranean, with a key strategic facility at Tartous.

5. Bashar al-Assad started out as a reformer. He took power claiming to want ‘genuine political reform,’ a previously closed economy and country started to open up, tourist numbers increased and a Costa opened at the back of the Four Seasons.

6. Bashar al-Assad was never much of a reformer. Political reform had shallow roots. Hafez al-Assad’s died, but his generals and his family, and well, his regime lived on. Bashar may have talked differently, but he was always — and still is — dependent on his father’s friends. In 2005 Syrian officials including Bashar’s brother-in-law were implicated in the assassination of Rafic Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon. The resulting international condemnation left Assad increasingly isolated, and when the pro-democracy Arab Spring movement reached Syria, brutal suppression escalated into civil war.

7. By 2012 even Bashar’s uncle was saying that he ‘cannot survive for long.’ Apparently, he was wrong.

8. The Syrian civil war — a conflict that has so far taken the lives of more than a quarter of a million people began in a school. In March 2011, and during the Arab Spring teenagers were found painting revolutionary slogans on a school wall in the southern city of Deraa. The teenagers were arrested and tortured. When protestors took to the streets, security forces opened fire, killing several. The killings sparked a national uprising, and in time to the emergence of armed factions to challenge the government.

9. After four years of fighting, the conflict now stretches the extent of Syria, and is believed to include combatants from over fifty countries and variously fighting on the side of the pro-government pro-Assad forces; the rebel armies that have emerged from anti-government factions, or the appalling ISIS, the Sunni Islamist armies working to establish Islamic theocracy — the Caliphate — over Syria, Iraq and well, the world.

10. As of March 2015 ISIS controlled territory occupied by ten million people, primarily in Syria and Iraq; with outposts in Libya, Nigeria and Afghanistan, and outposts elsewhere. Over sixty countries were engaged in direct or indirect conflict with ISIS.

11. At the time of writing, government forces control around 25% of Syrian territory; ISIS around 50%. The rest is disputed or controlled by minority groups including factions of the Syrian and Kurdish opposition. The reverse holds true for the civilian population, concentrated in Damascus and the cities of the coastal strip. Neither ISIS nor the anti-government forces have air cover, while the government air forces are backed and equipped by Russia.

12. Pro or anti-government factions believed to be active in Syria include the Palestine Liberation Army, the Ba’ath Brigades, the Slavonic Corps, the Shields of the Revolutionary Council and the Free Women’s Units of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party.

13. Countries taking an active supportive role in the conflict include Venezuala, Australia, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Belarus, France, Turkey, the UK and US.

14. Russia and Iran back the Assad government; while the US and UK have provided support to anti-government forces trying to hold off both the Damascus regime and the ISIS incursion originating in Iraq.

15. Half of the Syrian population are no longer in their homes. According to the UN and Syrian Observatory for Human Rights data, the pre-conflict population of Syria was 23m people. 4.1m are now refugees, 6.5m are ‘internally displaced’ and 310,000 have been killed. That adds up to 49 per cent of the previous population.

16. The UN estimates that average life expectancy in Syria has dropped by 22 years during the conflict. Four out of five Syrians live below the national poverty line and half of all Syrian schoolchildren have not attended school for the last three years.

17. Most of the people killed in Syria have been killed by Bashar al-Assad’s government. This year — for the six months between January and July — our best information is that ISIS killed 1,131 people; military and pro-government forces killed 7,894.

18. The strategic centre of the fighting is the northern city of Aleppo, the site of what is called ‘the mother of all battles.’ Whoever holds Aleppo holds the key to surrounding territory, including the path to Hama and the highly populated coastal strip. Pro-government and anti-government forces, ISIS, Kurdish and Christian battalions have all fought or are fighting now for control of Aleppo.

19. Amnesty International estimate that in 2014, 3,000 people were killed in Aleppo by barrel bombs used by pro-government forces. In 2015, Russian air strikes have been concentrated on Hama, and on the Western Aleppo, an area where Western-backed groups such as Liwa Suqour al-Jabal hold ground.

20. When it comes to killing civilians, the range and type of weaponry ranges from the high-tech to the home-made. It is government forces who are believed to have sent rockets carrying sarin gas into the opposition held suburb of Ghouta in August 2013. Estimates of the numbers of people killed range from 281 to 1,729, making Ghouta the most deadly use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq war. Elsewhere, pro-government forces use ‘barrel bombs,’ sections of pipe or other material stuffed with explosives and dropped from helicopters. Methods of execution used by ISIS include beating, drowning, burning, crucifixion, bombing, stoning and exsanguination.

21. Perhaps the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city, Aleppo is a UNESCO world heritage site and before the start of the conflict, was regarded as Syria’s commercial capital. The population in Aleppo in 2011 was 3 million people, of which one million people lived in eastern Aleppo. The population of eastern Aleppo in 2015 is believed to be around 40,000 people.

22. Located on a plateau 400m above sea level, Aleppo can experience extremes of temperature and climate. The highest temperature recorded in Aleppo is 117F; the lowest -13.

23. The stated aim underpinning Russian involvement in Syria is to combat ISIS. The main beneficiary of Russian air strikes are… ISIS. At the time of writing, anti-regime fighters have been the target of approximately 90 per cent of Russian action. ISIS is taking the opportunity to move into territory vacated by anti-government forces, and is now believed to be within two miles of the outskirts of the Aleppo’s northern suburbs.

24. ISIS quite literally keeps the lights on for Assad. While 83% of all lights in Syria have gone out (UN): ISIS forces control the interior, including the Arak and al-Hail gas fields near to Palmyra — the fields that supply electricity to the coastal cities.

25. When airstrikes began in 2013, pictures of Syrian strategic infrastructure were released to the media. They included a picture of the Assad palace on Mezzah Mount — never occupied, a picture of tanks on the Israeli border — decommissioned thirty years ago, and an airstrip in the desert — which belonged to an oil refinery. The quality of US information is believed to have since improved.

26. Many people believe that action in Syria should be contingent on a UN mandate, formulated in the Security Council. The UK has a permanent place on the Security Council, as does the United States, China, France and Russia. In 2012 Russia and China joined forces to veto a series of resolutions designed to put pressure on the Assad regime.

27. Elections are held for non-permanent places on the Security Council. New members selected in 2014 were Angola, Malaysia, Venezuala, New Zealand and Spain. Elections for the other five non-permanent seats will be held on the 14th October 2015. Candidate countries include Egypt, and the Ukraine.