480,000 dead and STILL no end in sight for Syria as US, Russia and Middle Eastern nations battle for power after defeat of ISIS

THE bloody conflict in Syria is expected to drag on for YEARS despite the defeat of terror group ISIS.

Dozens of armed and war-hardened factions backed by rival nations like Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other regional power players will refuse to lay down their arms and civilians will pay the price, Middle East analysts warn.

An estimated 480,000 people have died in the fighting between the tyrannical regime of Bashar al-Assad, jihadist groups like ISIS and opposition groups since March 2011.

James Gelvin, an American scholar on the Middle East, says Assad's forces will not bring the country under their control any time soon.

He wrote in the Pacific Standard: "First, regime opponents who have borne the brunt of the regime's brutality for the past seven years know better than to throw themselves on its mercy now.

"Second, the government is too weak.

"Finally, the Syrian civil war has been a proxy war with the West and Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies supporting the opposition. While that aid will certainly decline as a result of donor fatigue and logistical problems, it will probably not end.

"As a result, the opposition will not surrender from sheer exhaustion."

Despite the liberation of Raqqa, Islamic State's "capital" in October, fighting between the regime and rebel groups like the Free Syrian Army, Syrian civilians are still dying at an alarming rate.

An upsurge in air strikes and ground attacks by Syrian government forces against the besieged rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta has killed at least 85 civilians this year the UN human rights chief said today.

Just yesterday over a dozen civilians died in an attack on besieged rebel enclave in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, a war monitor claimed.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said: "In Eastern Ghouta, where a crippling siege has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, residential areas are being hit day and night by strikes from the ground and from the air, forcing civilians to hide in basements."

Assad has recovered major territory from rebels in Syria in the past two years, largely because of Russia's military support. His forces are currently battling rebels on two fronts, in the northwestern Idlib province and in the eastern suburbs of Damascus.

Opposition activists have reported airstrikes and shelling of rebel-held Damascus suburbs that killed and wounded dozens. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes attacked several suburbs of Damascus, including Saqba, where a man and a child were killed and 13 others were wounded.

Turkey, which backs the opposition, and Russia and Iran, whose wide-ranging support for Assad has turned the war in his favour, have taken the lead in Syria peace efforts over the past year.

But the rebel demand that Assad, whose use of torture and state-sanctioned murder sparked protests and ultimately armed rebellion against his rule, is ousted before any talks can take place have crippled negotiations.

Fahad Nazer, of the Middle East Institute, said: "The idea of his continuing in power is abhorrent to millions of Syrians and many others worldwide.

And while the terrorist group Daesh (another name for ISIS) has lost virtually all the territory it once controlled, primarily in eastern Syria, various opposition groups continue to control pockets in the west and north, and are still mounting attacks against regime forces.

"Making the conflict’s trajectory even less predictable is the fact that various outside actors — including the US, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and a host of militias and foreign fighters, including the Lebanese Hezbollah group — have a vested interest in ensuring that the economic and military costs they incurred, not to mention political capital, were not for naught."

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