Timeline of the Syrian civil war (2020)

[14] According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), by 6 February, the Syrian Army had captured 139 (including areas captured last year)[15] towns, villages and hilltops, including the strategic city of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, towns and villages of Al-Tah, Jarjnaz, Tell Mannas, Kafr Rumah, Khan al-Sabil, Hish, Sarmin and Afs and Turkish observation posts at Sarman, Maar Hattat, Tell Touqan, Rashidin in Western Aleppo and 4 posts inside the encircled Saraqib pocket.

[18][19][20] On 18 February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed her concerns over the increase in fighting in northwest Syria and blamed the Syrian government and Russia for intentionally targeting civilians.

[26] Additional shelling on nearby towns on both the government-controlled and opposition-controlled sides of the frontline were reported, with both Russian and Turkish forces involved in air and artillery support roles respectively.

[42][43] At around 11 a.m. on 27 February 2020, two Russian Sukhoi Su-34 and two Syrian Su-22 fighter jets started intensive bombing raids of Turkish-backed rebel forces in the southern countryside of Syria's Idlib province.

[43] At around 5 p.m., a 400-man Turkish mechanized infantry battalion traveling in a convoy was targeted by an airstrike on the road between al-Bara and Balyun, around five kilometers north of Kafr Nabl.

[46][47] On 12 February, government supporters blocked and pelted a U.S. military convoy passing through Qamishli, which led to a clash with U.S. troops, killing one civilian and injuring another.

[52] After the attack in northwest Idlib on 27 February, which caused the death of dozens of Turkish soldiers, Turkey declared on 1 March, that it was starting a major counteroffensive against Bashar al-Assad's government.

The pilots managed to eject from the jets and land safely at the clash site between Syrian forces and Turkish troops in Idlib province, the BBC added.

On 5 March, a meeting was held between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after which both parties agreed to a military ceasefire in Idlib province of northwestern Syria.

[62] On 7 March, breaking the truce, pro-government forces captured the villages of Al Burayi and Ma’arat Muqas after heavy shelling, but pulled back the following day under pressure from Russia.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also called for a ceasefire, as they cannot simultaneously deal with the virus outbreak and cater for the displaced people of Syria, the ICRC regional director added.

[68] As the Syrian war entered its tenth year on 1 April, the monthly death toll recorded by SOHR in March was the lowest, due to a fall in the number of civilian casualties.

[69] SOHR reported that the civilian death toll was less than half that in February, which was placed at 275, when a major government offensive in Syria's last opposition stronghold was still active.

[71] On 13 April, Turkish riot police dispersed dozens of Syrians participating in a sit-in on the M4 highway in the northwest linking the key cities of Saraqeb and Latakia; the incident showed a growing dissatisfaction toward the joint Russian-Turkish military presence in the area.

[75] On 27 April, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported that the Syrian government continued to commit multiple human rights violations in March and April, the same months seeing the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 44 civilians including six children killed, and its forces arrested 156 people, and committed at least four attacks on vital civilian facilities, including two schools.

[84] In April, it was alleged that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed had been attempting to persuade the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to break a ceasefire with Turkish-backed rebels in Idlib province.

[86][87][88] On 18 May, the UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen urged Russia and the US to take advantage of the partial cooling down of the situation in the region, and sue for peace so as to bring the conflict to an end.

[90][91][92] On 27 May, pro-Syrian government militias destroyed and desecrated the grave of the eighth Umayyad Caliph Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz, located in the village of Deir Sharqi in the area of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in the north-west province of Idlib, and with the contents exhumed and disappeared.

[96][97] On 1 June, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reported that the death toll of civilians in the month of May in Syria had reached a total of 125, including 26 children and six women.

[119] On 7–8 June, hundreds of protestors demonstrated against the government and against Russian and Iranian intervention in the country, in towns in southern Syria including As-Suwayda and Tafas in Daraa.

[121] The following day, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the provincial governor's office regardless of the security forces that had been deployed in the area, calling for government allies Iran and Russia to vacate the country and chanting anti-government slogans.

[124] The U.S. envoy to the international military intervention against ISIL, James Franklin Jeffrey, said that the collapse would be exacerbated due to sanctions, and offered to help President Bashar al-Assad if he agreed to meet certain conditions for political reform.

"[144] Analyst Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “Assad is absolutely the prime driver of Syria's ongoing collapse.

[But] the US position now appears to be fundamentally driven by great power politics and the goal of ensuring that Russia and Iran can't claim a win.

[150] According to Middle East Monitor, on 4 July, 20 Russian soldiers took control of Al-Ward, a major oil field in Abu Kamal countryside, after expelling the Syrian government military security personnel from it.

[158] According to the SOHR, on 17 July, the Syrian National Army was put on high alert and reinforced checkpoints and frontlines amid flyovers by unknown jets.

[171] According to Middle East Monitor, on 22 October, US-led coalition drones targeted a meeting arranged by an ex-ISIS commander with the participation of Hurras al Din members in the village of Jakara in the Salqin area of Idlib, killing at least 23 persons including 17 jihadist fighters (among them, seven senior leaders of Al-Qaeda)[172] and 6 civilians.

[173] On 23 October, SOHR and government sources reported that Russian missiles targeted an oil market controlled by Turkish backed rebels, between the villages of Al-Kousa and Ain Al-Bayda in Jarabulus countryside, Aleppo Governorate, killing 7 persons and injuring 15 more.

[191] On 25 November, following recent rains in the northern parts of Syria, which destroyed hundreds of tents in displacement camps in Idlib and Aleppo, the United Nations (UN) has revealed that aid is urgently needed for 3 million Syrian refugees.

[195][196] At least six pro-Iranian militia fighters were reported to have been killed in Hama province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also said that the air strikes were launched from the Lebanaese airspace.