The Syrian crisis started in 2011 when groups took up arms against President Bashar al-Assad, as other countries in the region were in the throes of the Arab Spring.
What started as an armed conflict turned into a full blown civil war that is now in its fifth year, involving multiple countries, each with several conflicting agendas. The war spawned what is now the world's biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
Here is where some of the main actors in the war stand.