Saturday, April 14th the US, the UK and France fired missiles on Syria, hoping to destroy ‘chemical weapon factories’ in Syria, killing 40 civilians.

This was the biggest attack that the West has done in the whole civil war. The attack amounted to dozens of casualties, and the full number isn’t clear yet. Syria claims to have never had chemical factories in the first place.

For the last seven years, there has been a civil war in Syria. The fighting has been rooted from three different groups: soldiers who support the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, rebels who go against the president, and the Islamic State (ISIS).

Syria’s supporters (supports of Bashar al-Assad) are Russian and Iranian, while the US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia support the rebels.

The war started with peaceful protesting. Citizens felt like the president gave no political freedom. The unemployment rate was high, and officials were not acting their role. Citizens believed that the president had much to do with this.

On March 18, 2011, the government answered their citizens with gunshots. They open fired on innocent protesters, killing four people. At the funeral for these people, they shot fire again at mourners, killing one person.

The group of supporters and rebels soon became apparent, quickly realizing a civil war had been uprooted.

In 2011, ISIS joined the rebellion in Syria, for they found it easier to access weapons. As ISIS is an extremely dangerous group, they will do anything to seek out people who disagree with them. ISIS was able to take over areas of Iraq, furthering into eastern Syria, thus able to gain power and land.

In September 2014, the US attacked ISIS fighters in Iraq using airstrikes. The UK Prime Minister agreed that they should take action into fighting against ISIS in Syria as well.

Because of the civil war, millions of Syrians have become refugees. They’re desperately searching for places to escape from their home. Many Syrians have sought refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey or Iraq.

Around 345,00 people, including non-soldiers, have lost their lives due to this civil war. A majority of the children can no longer attend school because there are no schools to attend and no teachers to teach.

The Syrian government and the rebels cannot reach to an agreement for the future nor can they defeat each other, thus reaching a stalemate. As much as the rest of the world wants to pour peace into Syria, it’s saddening to know that the chaos will still continue until they reach an agreement.