A YEAR SINCE THE BOMBING BEGAN

ON December 17, 2010, Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest against perceived harassment from state officials.

The shocking act set off a wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa which became known as the Arab Spring.

Governments were toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, with almost every state in the region seeing some form of protest.

On March 15, 2011, protesters marched into the Syrian capital Damascus to demand democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners.

During the protest they were fired on by security services.

Since then more than 300,000 people have been killed, 7,600,000 internally displaced and 4,800,000 have fled as refugees.

The ripple effects of this war have reached Welsh shores in many ways.

In September 2013, at the same time weapons inspectors were concluding that President Assad had used chemical weapons on his own people, The Sounds Of Light concert was held at the Cardiff City Stadium.

It was run by the charity Human Appeal to raise money for displaced Syrians.

Attending were children from St Teilo’s Church in Wales High School, who performed a song they had written and produced themselves.

“The purpose of the song was part of a oneyear plan in the school to help promote peace and peaceful living,” said Ian Loynd, assistant head teacher.

“We had a competition and the kids put for- ward songs.

“We ended up combining some of them and they went to a recording studio, played the instruments and did the song. It was entirely free of adults.

“It was about recognising that difference was a cause of conflicts and the kids wanted to do something to address this.”

Almost a year later Wales would have a far more direct impact on the war.

In May 2014, hundreds of Syrian rebels were being evacuated from their last stronghold in the central city of Homs.

This marked the end of three years of resistance in the city.

At the same time three their ideas for Cardiff men who had joined Isis to fight in Syria were using social media to talk about brutal executions and life on the frontline.

Aseel Muthana, aged just 17, his brother Nasser and friend Reyaad Khan had left Wales to fight for the extremist group.

By May 2015 Islamic State started to destroy the ancient city of Palmyra.

While the World Heritage site was being demolished the intensified fighting caused waves of refugees to attempt a deadly crossing of the Mediterranean.

Among them was three-year-old Alan Kurdi, who washed up dead on a beach in Turkey.

The image of his body caused outrage around