- Who controls which parts of Syria has changed dramatically since the civil war began in 2011.
- While Kurdish forces control a large swath of northeastern Syria, a Turkish incursion threatens to change that.
- Syrian President Bashar Assad, who used chemical weapons against his own people, now controls about half the country.
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Since the Syrian civil war started in 2011, who controls what parts of the country has changed dramatically.
President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to pull US forces from Kurdish-controlled areas in northeastern Syria, which Turkey threatens to invade, cast renewed attention on Syria's territorial divisions.
As of October, Kurdish forces, loosely allied under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), control much of northeastern Syria, from the northern border with Turkey, encompassing the former ISIS capital in the city of Raqqa, south to al-Qaim on the Syria-Iraq border, as well as a bit of territory in western Syria, north of Aleppo.
Here are the major forces that control Syria.
