How Syria and Syrians Are Suffering at the Hands of ISIS

ISIS Destroying Syria and Syrians Suffering at Their Hands

The Islamic State of Syria (ISIS) is a militia group that has its roots in Iraq and later on expanded its reach out to Syria and is now active much further in different expanses of the Middle East too. The ongoing war between the two Muslim communities, Sunnis and Shiites has largely destroyed the nation of Syria with Syrians being the most affected parties. Sunnis, who constitute the majority of the Muslim communities in the region, insist that their national leader ought to recognized and chosen from the religious leader of Syria. On the other hand, the Shiites who represent the minority contend such assertion and fight to have a leader who belongs to the direct lineage of Prophet Muhammad. At present, Syria has become a multifractured state split between the government administration of President Assad, Kurdish forces who are a minority group seeking independence, and the ISIS. The constant battle and war between these parties has ravaged and destroyed Syria (Beauchamp, 2015).

This situation began taking shape in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in 2011. President Assad intentionally besieged Syria's widely held Sunni Muslim regions, citizens, and rebels and engaged into action comparable to carnage. His objective was to separate the conflict on religious positions, to turn what commenced as an extensively-centered rebellion against a dictator into a religious war, with religious factions on his side. This was effective as two years later militant Sunni Islamists formed some of the most effective anti-Assad battalions, supported by Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In the intervening time, Iran's Shiite administration sponsored Assad with money, weaponries, and militaries. It turned out to be, to some extent, a Middle East religious deputation war of Shias against Sunnis. In the interim, a dreaded Sunni terrorist group referred to as al-Qaeda in Iraq, which had been temporarily overpowered in 2007, was restructuring, consolidating, and transforming itself. It developed into a resilient group fighting against Assad in Syria, and spread well along the northern side of Iraq under the new appellation, ISIS (Beauchamp, 2015).

It is important to take note that during the times of war, the civilians suffer the most. In this case, it is the Syrians who have suffered the most and more so at the hand of ISIS. On one hand, President Assad has made ruthless attempts to target ISIS by making use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs. On the other hand, in turn, ISIS have chosen to target and take control over towns and when they do, they end up putting the Syrians under cruel, dehumanizing, and vicious rule. The constant battle and war has destroyed neighborhoods and towns. According to Cullinane, Alkhshali and Tawfeeq (2015) ISIS have destroyed several towns and eminent historical sites. Some of these towns include Nimrud, Khorsabad, Hatra and Mosul. The ambush of such towns has brought about bloodbath with numerous Syrians being killed, cultural sites being destroyed and women being raped by members of ISIS. As asserted by Beauchamp (2015), over a quarter of a million Syrians have been killed as a result of ISIS aggression with about half of the Syrian citizen within the country being displaced from their homes. Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee the nation as refugees. The Syrians have been left with no other option but to flee and live in refugee camps overcrowding neighboring nations such as Turkey and Jordan (Beauchamp, 2015).