Syria

Syria is a country in Western Asia.

Opposition
A new political body included representatives of fighting groups, such as the powerful Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and the Free Syrian Army units that received military support from states such as Saudi Arabia and the United States; however, it did not include the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front or Islamic State, among the strongest opponents of Assad. Divisions within the Syrian opposition hampered efforts to resolve the conflict. Riad Hijab was elected on December 17, 2015 as coordinator by the body set up in Saudi Arabia, winning the backing of more than two-thirds of the 34 delegates.

International Efforts
The United Nations planned for truce monitoring that sought to avoid repeating the mission sent to Syria in the spring of 2012. After deploying some 300 unarmed "blue beret" monitors in April, after it was endorsed by then U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, the monitors were forced out by August when they became the target of angry crowds and gunfire. Three years later, in mid-December 2015, the U.N. mulled "light touch" options for monitoring a possible ceasefire, making it the second effort for a truce.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on December 18, 2015 endorsing an international road map for a peace process, a rare show of unity. The resolution came after Moscow and Washington clinched a deal on a text; the resolution, however, did not address Assad's fate. Moreover, Iran unified its stance with Russia in order to benefit Tehran, arguing that Assad could only be voted out. This stance hardened in early January 2016 as the U.N. worked quickly to salvage fragile international bids at peace from a spillover of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh's decision to cut off ties over the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran to protest the execution of a Shia cleric.

Israel
Israel air strikes often targeted Hezbollah members in Syria, including a commander and the son of the group's late military leader Imad Moughniyah near the Golan Heights in January 2015. Many of these strikes did not escalate hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, whose last major confrontation was in 2006, considering that Hezbollah was too busy fighing in Syria to afford a new front with Israel.

On December 19, 2015, an Israeli air strike killed Samir Qantar, a Hezbollah militant leader, in Damascus. Jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid in Israel that killed 4 people, Qantar - a Druze - was repatriated to Lebanon in 2008 in a prisoner swap with HEzbollah, which he joined soon after. It was believed he was involved with Hezbollah in Quneitra, Syria in early 2015, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Russia
On September 30, 2015, Russia began a major aerial campaign in support of Syran President Assad, its ally, who earlier in the year suffered a series of setbacks including the loss of Idlib province and other areas of crucial strategic importance. While the strikes targeted many Islamic State militants, as well as rebel targets, they caused hundreds of civilian casualties through indiscriminate bombing well away from the frontlines. While Idlib had been largely spared the intensified bombing campaign, air strikes killed scores of people in the center of the city on December 20, 2015.

United States
On December 16, 2015, the United States delivered a fresh supply of ammunition to Syrian Arab fighters allied with Kurdish fighters in the northeast, ahead of the battle with ISIS for al-Shadadi. It was the third delivery since the first airdrop in October 2015. The move unnerved the NATO ally Turkey, which was sensitive to any operations that could benefit Syrian Kurdish YPG militias.

Damascus
Schools were targeted by all sides in the violence. In mid-December 2015, intense air missile strikes on a school district and other areas in insurgent-held Damascus suburbs, including East Ghouta, killed dozens.

Deir ez-Zor
Schools were frequently the target of violence in Syria, evidenced by shelling of a school district by Islamic State militants on December 22, 2015 in Deir ez-Zor, which killed at least 9 students.

Idlib
After the offensive in Zabadani in the summer of 2015, insurgent groups launched attacks on the two Shia villages north of Idlib. In December 2015, a U.N.-backed deal allowed around 300 families in the two besieged Shia towns in the mainly rebel-held northwestern province to be transported to the Turkish border, from where they would fly to Beirut.

Zabadani
The Zabadani area was of importance to the government because of its proximity to the capital and the Lebanese border. It also was the focus of an offensive from July to September 2015 by Hezbollah and the Syrian Army against insurgent groups. After significant government gains, Iran and Turkey helped bring about a local ceasefire. In December 2015, a U.N.-backed deal allowed scores of rebel fighters, who had been holed up for months in the town, to have safe passage to Beirut airport to then head for their final destination of Turkey under International Committee of the Red Cross auspices.