Amazon.com description: Product Description: The land known as Syria is at the heart of the Middle East. Dotting Syrias landscape are the ancient ruins of the many civilizations that have ruled this land, dating back some 8,000 years. These ruins bear witness to Syrias troubled past under the rule of competing empires and colonial powers. Today the Syrian Arab Republic is ruled by a brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad, whose repressive policies and blatant disregard for human rights has led to the outbreak of a devastating civil war. That conflict, which began in 2011, has cost the lives of more than 220,000 people and has left roughly 9 million Syrians as refugees. Rebel groups now control large areas of Syrian territory; some, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have spread terror and destruction into neighboring Iraq. Both the United Nations and the Arab League have sought a peaceful resolution to the crisis, but this tragic civil war shows no sign of ending soon. Each title in this series contains color photos, maps, timelines and graphics that will help student readers put events into historical and present day perspective as well as back matter including: an index, further reading lists for books and internet resources, and a series glossary. Mason Crests editorial team has placed Key Icons to Look for throughout the books in this series in an effort to encourage library readers to build knowledge, gain awareness, explore possibilities and expand their viewpoints through our content rich non-fiction books. Key Icons are as follows: Words to Understand are shown at the front of each chapter with definitions. These words are then used in the prose throughout that chapter, and are emboldened, so that the reader is able to reference back to the definitions- building their vocabulary and enhancing thei