The Syrian civil war is an ongoing conflict in Syria that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring. The Assad regime responded to the protests with lethal force, sparking a civil war that lasted almost 14 years and culminated in the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Many sources regard this as the end of the war. All revolutionary factions were united into the Syrian caretaker government by 12 March 2025.