For more than five years now, Syrians have endured the loss and hardship caused by a protracted civil war. An estimated 4.8 million Syrians have fled their homeland, filling refugee camps in neighboring countries. Despite a partial cease-fire agreement, airstrikes, ground attacks, bombings, and street battles take place nearly every day as Syrian government forces battle with a number of rebel groups, including ISIS, which faces pushback in Iraq as well. Russian involvement surged at the end of last year, as it flew thousands of bombing attacks in support of the Assad government. The complex and dangerous situation remains nowhere near resolved, with foreign intervention increasing and those caught in the crossfire suffering the most. Gathered here are images of the ongoing Syrian conflict from the past few months.
In Syria: More Than Five Years of War
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Read moreSyrian civil defense volunteers and rescuers remove a baby from under the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Kalasa, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on April 28, 2016. #
Ameer Alhalbi / AFP / Getty -
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Read moreIn this photo taken on April 8, 2016, provided by Russian Defense Ministry press service, a Russian serviceman checks for mines in the ancient ruins in Palmyra, in Syria. #
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service Photo via AP -
Read moreThe wreckage of a government warplane after Al-Nusra front (Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate) reportedly shot it down over the northern Syrian town of Al-Eis on April 5, 2016. Al-Nusra captured one crew member alive, a rebel source and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The monitoring group said Al-Nusra downed the plane, which the group said was likely being flown by a Syrian air force pilot. #
Omar Haj Kadour / AFP / Getty -
Read moreOn April 4, 2016, a Syrian soldier sets fire to an ISIS flag after Syrian troops regained control of al-Qaryatain, a town in the province of Homs, in central Syria, the day before. ISIS jihadists withdrew from the town a week after the Russian-backed army and allied militia scored a major victory in the ancient city of Palmyra, which is also located in the vast province of Homs. The recapture of al-Qaryatain allows the army to secure its grip over Palmyra, where jihadists destroyed ancient temples during their 10-month rule and executed 280 people. #
Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty -
Read moreThree Syrian men whose lives were changed drastically by the war, left wounded and scarred by encounters with ISIS militants. Left: 34 year-old Abo poses in Kilis, Turkey, on May 12, 2016. Abo, a fighter for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was injured by shrapnel while fighting ISIS outside of Azaz, Syria on May 9th, 2016. Abo was blinded in his left eye and suffered wounds across his body including his arms, chest, and head. A shoemaker before the war, Abo has been fighting against ISIS for the past year, his wife and children currently live in a refugee camp inside Syria at the Turkish border. When asked if he would return to Syria and continue fighting he said “Of course, I am fighting for my country, family, and my freedom. Daesh they are not Islam they are criminals.” Center: 31 year-old Syrian, Anwar photographed on May 12, 2016 in Kilis, Turkey. Anwar worked as an activist, media liaison, and interpreter for foreign media. On August 11, 2013, just days after working with a foreign journalist, he was taken from his house at gunpoint by a group of masked ISIS soldiers. Blindfolded and beaten, he was taken to a prison in Aleppo. He was kept there with many other prisoners for two weeks and tortured with electricity before being moved to another prison outside of Aleppo where he was kept for a further fifteen days. After being told he would be allowed to see his family, Anwar sensed something had changed and decided to attempt an escape. Since being imprisoned he had lost a lot of weight and under the cover of darkness he squeezed through the bars of his cell using a sheet to lower himself down the other side before escaping the prisons gates. “The picture of my little girl that never departed my mind and my love of freedom gave me the courage to escape,” he said. Right: 20 year-old Syrian ‘Arrow’ (a nickname) in Kilis, Turkey, on May 12, 2016. Arrow, has been fighting with the FSA for the past three and a half years and suffered head and neck injuries after being shot by an ISIL sniper outside of Azaz, Syria, on May 8. Arrow worked as an electrician before the war and says “Daesh is worse than Assad, they use Islam for cover, without Daesh we will be free.” Arrow plans to return to Syria and continue fighting once he has fully recovered. #
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Read moreIn this photo provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, a Russian Su-30 jet fighter takes off at Hemeimeem Air Base in Syria on March 16, 2016. From late 2015 through February of 2016, Russia maintained a bombing campaign, conducting thousands of sorties across Syria for about six months. #
Vadim Grishankin / Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP -
Read moreA rebel fighter, reportedly belonging to the Faylaq al-Rahman brigade, looks up from his hiding spot in the rebel-controlled area of Arbeen, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus on January 29, 2016. #
Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty -
Read moreA man gestures amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported airstrike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on April 28, 2016. #
Ameer Alhalbi / AFP / Getty -
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Click to view imageRead moreSyrian rescue workers and residents try to pull a bleeding man from under the rubble of a building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Salhin, in the northern city of Aleppo, on March 11, 2016. #
Thaer Mohammed / AFP / Getty -
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Click to view imageRead moreSyrian civil defence volunteers carry the body of a girl, dug out of the rubble, following a reported attack by Syrian government forces on the Sakhour eastern neighborhood, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on May 30, 2016. #
Thaer Mohammed / AFP / Getty -
Read moreIn this photo released on March 24, 2016, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian government soldier takes a position inside a damaged palace, at the entrance of Palmyra, Syria. #
SANA via AP -
Read moreA Syrian refugee girl Amna Zughayar, 9, from Deir el-Zour, Syria, poses for a picture at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan, on March 13, 2016. #
Muhammed Muheisen / AP -
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Read moreRebel fighters monitor the sky holding a FN-6 man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) in the Syrian village of Teir Maalah, on the northern outskirts of Homs, on April 20, 2016. #
Mahmoud Taha / AFP / Getty -
Read moreA wounded Syrian receives medical attention at a makeshift hospital, following Syrian government air strikes, on March 31, 2016, in Deir Al-Assafir, a town in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta. On that day, Syrian government air strikes killed at least 23 people including four children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. #
Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty -
Read moreIn this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrians gather in front of a burning car at the scene where suicide bombers blew themselves up, in the coastal town of Tartus, Syria, on May 23, 2016. Syrian TV said suicide bombers blew themselves up followed by a car bomb going off in a parking lot packed during morning rush hour. #
SANA via AP -
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Read moreA Syrian rebel fighter from the Failaq al-Rahman brigade emerges from a hiding position on the frontline against regime forces in the town of Arbin, in the eastern Ghouta region, on the outskirts of Damascus, on February 26, 2016. #
Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty -
Read moreChildren attend a war-safety awareness class conducted by civil defense members in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town, in Idlib province, Syria, on May 14, 2016. #
Khalil Ashawi / Reuters -
Read moreA Syrian refugee woman, who is stuck between the Jordanian and Syrian borders, holds her child as she crosses into Jordan, near the town of Ruwaished, at the Hadalat area, east of the capital Amman, on May 4, 2016. #
Muhammad Hamed / Reuters -
Read moreA photographer holds his picture of the Temple of Bel taken on March 14, 2014, in front of the remains of the historic temple after it was destroyed by ISIS jihadists in September 2015, in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, on March 31, 2016. Syrian troops backed by Russian forces recaptured Palmyra on March 27, 2016, after a fierce offensive to rescue the city from jihadists who view the UNESCO-listed site's magnificent ruins as idolatrous. #
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This image may contain graphic or objectionable content.
Click to view imageRead moreA man follows rescuers carrying the body of a boy on a stretcher following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Kalasa in Aleppo, on April 28, 2016. #
Ameer Alhalbi / AFP / Getty -
This image may contain graphic or objectionable content.
Click to view imageRead moreSyrians evacuate the area following an air strike on the rebel-held eastern Bab al-Nayrab neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on April 26, 2016. Air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo and a town to its west killed at least over a dozen people, emergency workers said. #
Ameer Alhalbi / AFP / Getty -
Read moreThe Palmyra citadel is seen in the background as Syrian families load their belongings onto a bus in the town of Palmyra, in the central Homs province, Syria, on April 14, 2016. Thousands of residents of this ancient town who fled ISIS rule returned briefly to check on their homes and salvage what they could. #
Hassan Ammar / AP -
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Read moreBarcham Zana, left, and Helene Osman, at a training camp in northern Syria where U.S. military advisers are working with local Arab volunteers who want to fight the Islamic State, on May 21, 2016. At age 20, Zana knows her enemy. It is the ISIS, which she calls “darkness.” Two cousins were killed by ISIS, she said, so for her this is not an abstract threat. #
Robert Burns / AP -
Read moreArmed men in uniform identified by Syrian Democratic forces as U.S. special operations forces ride in the back of a pickup truck in the village of Fatisah, in the northern Syrian province of Raqa, on May 25, 2016. U.S.-backed Syrian fighters and Iraqi forces pressed twin assaults against ISIS, in two of the most important ground offensives yet against the jihadists. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on May 24 its push for ISIS territory north of Raqa city, which is around 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the Syrian-Turkish border and home to an estimated 300,000 people. The SDF is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)—largely considered the most effective independent anti-IS force on the ground in Syria—but it also includes Arab Muslim and Christian fighters. #
Delil Souleiman / AFP / Getty -
Read moreA Red Crescent convoy carrying humanitarian aid arrives in Kafr Batna, in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area, on the outskirts of Damascus, on February 23, 2016, during an operation in cooperation with the UN to deliver aid to thousands of besieged Syrians. #
Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty -
Read moreA boy, who was evacuated with others from two rebel-besieged towns of Foua and Kefraya in the northwestern province of Idlib, stands inside a hospital that was struck by an explosion on the outskirts of the Sayeda Zeinab district, south of Damascus, on April 25, 2016. #
Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
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