A boy who grew up during Syria’s war reveals the untold origins of the conflict and the fight for his nation’s freedom.
In 2017, Al Jazeera broadcast a documentary by Clover Films that sought to highlight the true origins of the Syrian civil war. By that year, international sympathy for the rebel cause had diminished dramatically as Western media adopted the accepted mainstream position that groups such as al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and even ISIL (ISIS) had been behind the revolution. (ISIL didn’t even exist at the time of the uprising.) The Boy Who Started the Syrian War would change the narrative.
Now, with the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime along with its army and militia, the Shabiha, it’s time to meet once again with the surviving characters from the original film. One of those is Mouawiya Syasneh, who had laid down his school satchel and picked up a gun to fight with the Free Syrian Army.
Published On 24 Nov 2025
