article_snippet: Drought caused by climate change may pushed Syria towards the devastating civil war currently riping Syria apart, according to researchers.
article_snippet: A new study has found that many parts of Syria were hit by a record dry period between 2006 and 2010 which may have propelled the uprising against the Syrian regime in 2011.
article_snippet: The drought, which scientists say was likely made worse by climate change, destroyed much of the agriculture in the north of Syria, driving farmers into cities.
article_snippet: This image taken in Syria in 2009 shows how drought left farmers unable to grow crops on the parched land .
article_snippet: Particularly hard hit was the Fertile Crescent that spans Syria, Turkey and Iraq.
article_snippet: the drought was so severe that the Euphrates river in the city of Raqqa, eastern Syria receded to the point shown above in 2010.
article_snippet: Nearly half a million people left the area during the drought and 85 per cent of livestock were killed by the lack of water .
article_snippet: This caused agricultural production to plunge by a third in Syria.
article_snippet: The researchers said that Bashar Hafez al-Assad's regime also encouraged water intensive crops like cotton for export while illegal drilling of irrigation wells rapidly depleted groundwater.
article_snippet: In the worst hit north east areas of the country, livestock herds were practically obliterated, cereal prices doubled and nutrition-related diseases among children increased dramatically.
highlights_snippet: Study finds that Syria suffered the worst drought on record before the war .
  
highlights_snippet: Agricultural production in Syria fell by a third while the population soared .
  