In a matter of days, an intense rebel offensive brought down one of the world's most entrenched regimes, ending the sixty-year Baathist dictatorship and the Assad family's grip on Syria. The speed of the collapse stunned observers. Yet this was no sudden fall. It was the culmination of a revolution forged through years of protest, repression and resistance.





The fall triggered celebrations and freedoms Syrians had not experienced in decades. But the cost has been immense, and the wounds of violence are unresolved. As the country enters a precarious new phase, urgent questions remain: can justice be delivered and a fractured society rebuilt? Or will competing powers and unaddressed grievances pull Syria back into conflict?





Drawing on first-hand reporting and interviews across Syria, Robin Yassin-Kassab traces this pivotal moment through the lives of those who lived it. The Blood Between Us is a portrait of a country suspended between collapse and possibility – and a clear-eyed account of who will shape what comes next.



Map viii

Timeline of events ix

List of acronyms xi

Preface: The Transitional Moment 1

1 Eleven Days 5

2 Moving to the Centre 54

3 Revolution Yesterday 84

4 Our Lives Count for Nothing 107

5 March: 'Some Blood Had to Be Spilled' 131

6 July: 'Sunni or Druze?' 157

7 Broken Bridges 189

8 Militia-Land 216

9 Bani Umayya 242

10 From the Rubble 265

Afterword: Breathing Space 295

Postscript 303

Notes 307

Further reading 323

Acknowledgements 327

Index 328