Five years of Syria's civil war:

Syria has imploded since pro-democracy protests first shook the regime of Bashar al-Assad in March 2011. A brutal and complex war fuelled by sectarian, political and international divisions has killed hundreds of thousands of people and created millions of refugees.

What began as protests met by increasing violence spread across the region as refugees poured out and foreign fighters, money and arms poured in. Below, the story is told how it was witnessed, from neighbourhoods ringed by snipers and first-hand accounts of massacres, to rebel fighters who warned of the rise of Islamic State and civilians who saw their lives and loved ones shattered by violence. In Syria’s rebel city ‘they will shoot anything that moves’

1 May 2011: Deraa was the first city to revolt against the rule of Bashar al-Assad, in mid March 2011. Protests were met with violence and that April Syrian army tanks and snipers were sent in to crush the rebellion. A resident gave a first-hand account of the violence:

Anyone who leaves the house is being shot. There are snipers on every building and the army is in the streets. We are just staying inside now, because you know that if you try to leave the house you are already a dead man. They will shoot anything that moves. And if soldiers refuse to fire on people they are executed.

It is dangerous for me to talk on the phone but we need to do this. We will do whatever it takes for the world to hear our stories. The first refugees

9 June 2011: The first thousands of a flow that would come to number millions crossed Syria’s borders as the Assad government’s crackdown intensified. In southern Turkey, minivans shuttled along a bitumen road between the two countries, disgorging dozens of men, women and children who then made their way along dirt roads winding between olive groves. Refugees were ushered into makeshift camps and away from the waiting press.

Allowing Syrians to cross the border but not to speak appeared to be part of a delicate Turkish balance as it positioned itself between Damascus and the west. One Syrian, 39-year-old Abu Majid, however told the Guardian how his besieged hometown of Jisr al-Shughour had been largely abandoned by its population of 41,000 amid heavy fighting and fears of a full-scale government assault.

Read full article ‘They are pushing Syria into a religious war that they will certainly get’

16 February 2012: Near Homs, a city surrounded by the Syrian army, inhabitants of a terrified town down the valley feared an onslaught from the vengeful military hidden on the outskirts. Snipers reminded residents that the might of the Syrian army was out there – and preparing to come after them.

Sectarianism was beginning to bite in the heartland of the revolution. As a funeral procession filled the desolate streets, collective rage was gathering steam as it neared the edge of sniper alley. “One, one, one, Sunni blood is one,” a man screamed into a microphone. Others vented against Assad’s Alawite sect. Protesters said they used to view the Alawites as a privileged ruling elite but now saw them as persecutors acting out both an ancient Islamic rivalry and bid for control of the region on behalf of Iran.