War-torn Syria rings in New Year much like it ended 2014

  • 9 years ago
Syria rings in the New Year much like it ended the old one .... at war.

Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al Assad routinely post amateur video to chronicle the frontlines.

On New Year's Day, they posted a range of images meant to show the fighting raging across the country.

Numerous insurgents are pitted against Assad -- Western-backed fighters, the Nusra Front, and it's ultra hardline offshoot Islamic State.

The conflict -- now in its fourth year -- killed some 200,000 people.

76,000 are said to have died in just 2014 alone, nearly half of them civilians by one estimate.

Going into 2015, no one group enjoys significant momentum in the fighting.

Last month, President Assad said he expects the war to be difficult and long.

In New Year's Day video said to be from Derra -- that's where Syria's pro-democracy movement started in 2011 -- before the rebellion morphed into this all out protracted war -- residents have a rooftop view of