Syrian rebel ... years of the civil war, Assad relied heavily on military support from Russia and Iran, which helped him retake most of Syria's territory and major cities before the front lines ...

When The Economist’s correspondent, Sarah Birke, left Damascus in 2011 ... Sarah visited the city to see how it had been changed by more than a decade of war. What she found was a city uncertain ...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP ... Arab dictators known as the 2011 Arab Spring, before Assad crushed the largely peaceful protests and a civil war erupted. Half a million people have been killed ...