“Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV. In that role, he led the crackdown in the southern province that led to the uprising and later the civil war. And unlike the protests, the civil war reflected sectarian divisions. How did the Syrian civil war end? Al-Sharaa has the unenviable task of leading a country that is fractured on ethnic lines and left economically impoverished by the lengthy civil war.