Things Are Pretty Dire in Syria Right Now; Here's What's Going On

The U.S. intervention saw 59 cruise missiles strike a key government target in Syria today.

Under the orders of U.S. President Donald Trump, a warship based in the Mediterranean has launched 59 cruise missiles in response to the Syrian government's alleged chemical gas attack on Tuesday.

The target in question was Shayrat airfield in the Homs province, a major air force base for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

President Trump held a press conference shortly after the attack to state there was no doubt chemical weapons had been used in the Tuesday attack on Khan Sheikhoun, which left more than 70 people dead, a figure that includes 20 children. The missile attack was in retaliation to this.

Watch the speech from US President Donald Trump in FULL, after missiles were launched following #Syria chemical attack pic.twitter.com/ZZ9eMguFTL

— ABC News 24 (@ABCNews24) April 7, 2017

“Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this barbaric attack," Trump said.

The decision marks a major change to his pre-election platform where he exclaimed that pulling out of Syria was necessary for the U.S.

@Crysmarie513 @josephamodeo @IvankaTrump @POTUS @TheWorldPost You know what's ironic about all this? pic.twitter.com/SH4boLjueq

— Josh Sánchez (@jnsanchez) April 5, 2017

This is all really confusing. Where did it all start?

It’s a very complex conflict because so there are so many parties and allegiances involved.

The Syrian Civil War erupted in 2011 during the height of the Arab Spring after 15 children were reportedly tortured and some murdered for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall in the city of Deraa.

Protests erupted and Assad’s government retaliated by shooting at protesters, killing some of them.

Assad, however, was already unpopular in Syria.

He and much of his government are part of the Alawite sect of Shia in Islam. The majority of Syria’s population is not from this sect, let alone this branch of Islam.

This key fact is an easy way of explaining why certain neighbouring countries support the Assad government and why others support the rebels, but this is over-simplifying the situation.

Supporting the Assad government, you have majority Shia countries like Iran and even the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.

Supporting the rebel camp, there's Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

And then there’s ISIL, an extremist Islamist group, which you’ve most likely heard of in the media (usually referred to as ISIS), seeking expansion.

Countries outside of this region have also taken sides, but it’s even murkier to explain.

The U.S. has been very vocal against the atrocities Assad has committed against his own people, while Russia has backed Assad for a number of reasons, such as maintaining their naval facility within the country.

This leaves the U.S. and Russia on opposing sides of a foreign war, just like the world saw during the Cold War.

Many of these opposing forces have fought for territories within Syria. Luckily, Al Jazeera published this very useful map of Syria to explain who controls the territories at the moment.

Okay, what happens next?

Australia’s own Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has come out in support of President Trump’s actions.

"This is a vitally important signal… The world will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons," he said in a press conference.

He also explained that Australia was not at war and hinted that there was no intention of that in the immediate future.

"You can imagine, 59 cruise missiles is a substantial attack on that airfield. But we are not at war with the Assad regime and United States have made it clear that they are not seeking to overthrow the Assad regime," he added.

It does appear that the strike has inflicted some damage on the relations between Russia and the U.S. given that they are on opposing sides of the conflict.

#BREAKING US strikes in Syria inflict 'considerable damage' to US-Russia ties: Kremlin

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 7, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base broke international law.

— ABC News 24 (@ABCNews24) April 7, 2017

Russia was allegedly warned well in-advance before the strikes landed, but appears to still be opposed to the move.

The story is still developing and will likely to see more responses over the weekend.

Photo: iStock