Syria was one of the states most heavily affected by the Arab Spring , and by the second half of March 2011 , major anti-government protests were being held in Syria . Though Syria had long been an adversary of the United States , Obama argued that unilateral military action to topple the Bashar al-Assad regime would be a mistake . As the protests continued , Syria fell into a protracted civil war , and the United States supported the Syrian opposition against the Assad regime . US criticism of Assad intensified after the Ghouta chemical attack , eventually resulting in a Russian-backed deal that saw the Syrian government relinquish its chemical weapons . In the chaos of the Syrian Civil War , an Islamist group known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL ) took control of large portions of Syria and Iraq . ISIL , which had originated as al-Qaeda in Iraq under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , eventually challenged al-Qaeda as the most prominent global terrorist group during Obama 's second term . Starting in 2014 , the Obama administration launched air strikes against ISIL and trained anti-ISIL soldiers , while continuing to oppose Assad 's regime . The Obama administration also cooperated with Syrian Kurds in opposing the ISIL , straining relations with Turkey , which accused the Syrian Kurds of working with the Kurdish terrorist groups inside Turkey . Russia launched its own military intervention to aid Assad 's regime , creating a complicated multi-party proxy war , though the United States and Russia sometimes cooperated to fight ISIL . In November 2015 , Obama announced a plan to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States . Obama 's " light-footprint " approach to the Syrian conflict was criticized by many as the Syrian Civil War became a major humanitarian catastrophe , but supporters of Obama argued that he deserved credit for keeping the United States out of another costly ground war in the Middle East
Ghouta chemical attack
Ghouta chemical attack
Presidency of Barack Obama