Syria under Bashar al-Assad has been a strategic ally to both Iranian and Russian interests. Since 2011, the year the civil war broke out, Iran and its allies, namely Russia (in 2015), Armenia (2015), Hezbollah (2011), Venezuela (supporting since 2013), China (supporting since 2011), Iraq (2016), and Algeria (supporting since 2012) have supported or intervened on Bashar al-Assad's side. However, Iran, Russia, Iraq, and Hezbollah, along with other Iraqi militias, have been the ones that mainly intervened and brought large number of troops. Syria has in turn, supported Iran and its allies in their affairs, including Libya, Yemen, and &lt;a href="Second%20Karabakh%20War"&gt;Armenia/Azerbaijan&lt;/a&gt;.