Thursday marked the seventh year of Syria's devastating civil war, and with no end in sight still. In this time, nearly half a million people have been killed, millions have fled the country or have been internally displaced, and a whole generation of children has known nothing but war. CGTN's Nathan King takes a look back at the past seven years.  

It began with demonstrations over the arrest of young boys, but as had been seen across the Middle East, it quickly expanded into a confrontation with the government.

Pro Bashar al-Assad rallies were also held but the delicate ethnic and religious balances that held Syria together quickly fell apart. Ancient cities like Homs and Daraa became modern day battlefields.

The fighting bloody town-to-town, street-to-street, house-to-house. The world and the region shocked -- but nations stoked the civil war by taking sides and sponsoring armed groups. The US called for Assad to step down.

By 2012 the fighting was country-wide. The UN sent an envoy. Peace plans were floated - but the killing continued. By 2013 chemical weapons were being used against civilians. This was a red line, the US President declared. The US seemed poised to intervene- but instead decided on diplomacy with an influential Russia. An agreement was signed to rid Syria of chemical weapons peacefully.

But Syria continued to implode. Syria's second most populous city Aleppo became a flashpoint. Rebels radicalized by war and outside influence became increasingly Islamic in nature. ISIL rushed in from neighboring Iraq, terrorizing village after village. In the fall of 2014 the US launched an air campaign against the terror group after it shocked the world via social media showing the execution of kidnapped journalists.

Refugees who had flocked to Turkey, Jordan and Iraq by the millions now tried to move to Europe by the thousands risking everything for a better life. The migrants were met with a mix of hostility and compassion creating deep divisions in Europe. Peace plan after peace plan failed.

2015 and Syria's government forces suffered setbacks- fears of a radical rebel takeover fueled intervention on behalf of Damascus by Iranian backed forces -- and then perhaps decisively Russia. Russia said it was targeting terrorists - just like the US - but the two sides don't agree on who is a terrorist. Serious tensions rose.

2016 saw tensions too between other powers. Turkey, angry at its US ally which relied heavily on Syrian Kurdish forces to tackle ISIL since Kurds have long sought to establish a separate state out of Syrian and Turkish territory.

2017 brought a new US President and a new policy - the US stepped up its fight. Eventually the self-described caliphate's capital of Raqqa would fall. For the first time in the conflict the US launched air strikes in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Damascus. Syria denied it, Russia complained and the deep divisions remained over Syria's future.

2018. Russia, buoyed by its success in defending the Syrian government and turning the war around, is now trying its own peace initiative.

But the killing continues. Civilians from the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta trapped -- despite a United Nations backed ceasefire.

Seven years on nearly half a million dead, twelve million have fled their homes and peace is nowhere to be found.