Lyse Doucet, the veteran BBC journalist, was in Daraa in 2011 to cover the anti-government protests against Bashar Assad. Few would have predicted at the time that those events in the southern city, now referred to as the cradle of the uprising, would have escalated into seven devastating years of civil war, killing half a million people and leaving the country in ruins.
Doucet has reported from the country extensively during that time and in this two-part documentary she tracks and explains the main arcs of the conflict from the early protests filled with hope through to some of the darkest episodes that have unfolded in the region since the Arab Spring. “Syria: The World’s War” includes interviews with officials on both sides as it explains the key decisions made as the conflict escalated.
It also features harrowing testimony from ordinary Syrians, who have suffered the most, as well as haunting footage of Assad’s worst atrocities.
