According to the Syrian government, 9,815–10,146 people, including 3,430 members of the security forces, 2,805–3,140 insurgents and up to 3,600 civilians, have been killed in fighting with what they characterize as "armed terrorist groups. Immediately following al-Assad's death, the Syrian Parliament amended the constitution, reducing the mandatory minimum age of the President from 40 to 34. It is from this period that the name Syria first emerges, but not in relation to modern Syria, but as an Indo-European corruption of Assyria, which in fact encompassed the modern regions of northern Iraq, north east Syria, south east Turkey and the northwestern fringe of Iran. Nationalist agitation against French rule led to Sultan al-Atrash leading a revolt that broke out in the Druze Mountain in 1925 and spread across the whole of Syria and parts of Lebanon. Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade relations. Syria was divided into four districts: Damascus, Homs, Palestine and Jordan. [49] Anti-government rebels have been accused of human rights abuses as well, including torture, kidnapping, unlawful detention and execution of civilians, Shabiha and soldiers. On 20 December 2012, a UN Independent Commission of Inquiry said that Syria's newest insurgent groups increasingly operate independently of the rebel command and some are affiliated with al-Qaeda. About one million Syrian workers came into Lebanon after the war ended to find jobs in the reconstruction of the country. Many of the city's inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans, who were deported to Samarkand. The Israelis pushed deeper into Syrian territory, beyond the 1967 boundary. Instability characterised the next 18 months, with various coups culminating on 8 March 1963, in the installation by leftist Syrian Army officers of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), a group of military and civilian officials who assumed control of all executive and legislative authority. In May 2004, the USA imposed economic sanctions on Syria over what it called its support for terrorism and failure to stop militants entering Iraq. King Hussein and Yasser Arafat attended the meeting of the Arab League in Cairo, where the hostilities briefly ended. See International law: achievements and prospects, by Mohammed Bedjaoui, UNESCO, Martinus Nijhoff; 1991, Mandates, Dependencies and Trusteeship, by H. Duncan Hall, Carnegie Endowment, 1948, pages 265-266. During the 12th-13th centuries, parts of Syria were held by Crusader states: the County of Edessa (1098–1149), the Principality of Antioch (1098–1268) and County of Tripoli (1109–1289). After intense fighting, the Syrians were repulsed in the Golan Heights. [10] Soldiers from Legio III Gallica who were stationed near Emesa would visit the city occasionally,[10] and were persuaded to swear fealty to Elagabalus by Maesa who used her enormous wealth[11] and claimed that he was Caracalla's bastard. On 18 September 1970, during the events of Black September in Jordan, Syria tried to intervene on behalf of the Palestinian guerrillas. Uprising in Hama The government blamed Islamist militants. After a few years of what seemed like potential diplomacy between Assad and other nations, the United States renewed sanctions against Syria in 2010, saying that the regime supported terrorist groups. Turkey returned fire and intercepted a Syrian plane allegedly carrying arms from Russia. However, the diplomatic thaw was resumed when President Assad met the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris in July 2008. In 1549, Syria was reorganized into two eyalets; the Eyalet of Damascus and the new Eyalet of Aleppo. In 1586, the Eyalet of Raqqa was established in eastern Syria. In the same month, a national referendum was held to confirm Assad as President for a 7-year term. [48] Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human shields when they advanced on opposition held-areas. Jabal Druze, Sanjak of Alexandretta, and Greater Lebanon were not parts of this federation, which adopted a new federal flag (green-white-green with French canton). Syria backs Iran, in keeping with the traditional rivalry between Baathist leaderships in Iraq and Syria. With the decline of the empire in the west, Syria became part of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire in 395. [72][73], Syria's international relations improved for a period. The Ba'ath takeover in Syria followed a Ba'ath coup in Iraq, the previous month. Europe has also been an important asylum for refugees, with Germany taking in the most. The capital of this Empire (founded in 312 BCE) was situated at Antioch, then a part of historical Syria, but just inside the Turkish border today as well. The capital is Damascus. In May 1964, President Amin al-Hafiz of the NCRC promulgated a provisional constitution providing for a National Council of the Revolution (NCR), an appointed legislature composed of representatives of mass organisations—labour, peasant, and professional unions—a presidential council, in which executive power was vested, and a cabinet.