Report: The CIA Played a Large Part in the 2011 Syrian Civil War that Killed 350,000 People

The CIA’s Covert Role in Fueling the Syrian Conflict

The Syrian civil war has been one of the deadliest and most destructive conflicts of the 21st century, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and displacing millions. While the roots of the conflict lie in the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, the CIA’s covert program, known as Timber Sycamore, played a significant role in fueling and prolonging the violence.

CIA’s Covert Arming of Rebels

In 2012, the CIA launched Timber Sycamore, a covert operation to arm, train, and fund rebel groups fighting against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. The program aimed to weaken Assad’s grip on power and force him to negotiate a political transition.

Over the course of several years, the CIA trained and equipped nearly 10,000 rebel fighters at a cost of $1 billion per year. The rebels received weapons, ammunition, and…