Drought caused by climate change may pushed Syria towards the devastating civil war currently riping the country apart, according to researchers. A new study has found that many parts of the country were hit by a record dry period between 2006 and 2010 which may have propelled the uprising against the Syrian regime in 2011. The drought, which scientists say was likely made worse by climate change, destroyed much of the agriculture in the north of the country, driving farmers into cities. This image taken in Syria in 2009 shows how drought left farmers unable to grow crops on the parched land . The resulting rising urban populations combined with poverty, government mismanagement and other factors combined to trigger the unrest that led to the civil war. The conflict hjas since escalated into a complex war involving extremist Islamic groups including ISIS and forces from other nations including the US. The brutal civil war in Syria has left a trail of destruction so deep on the landscape that it can be seen from space. Researchers at the American Association for the Advancement of Science  analyzed high-resolution satellite images of Aleppo taken from August 2012 to May 2013. They noticed a dramatic increase in the damage to buildings and infrastructure over the 10-month period, with almost all of the destruction concentrated in rebel-controlled or contested areas. They also found that the historic 13th century walled ancient city of Aleppo - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - has also suffered extensive damage from the war. Satellite images have also shown how the proliferation of roadblocks and build up of artillery and tanks have increased. In separate satellite images released by Amnesty International in 2012, there were more than 600 craters caused by artillery fire in the small town of Anadan, four miles from second city Aleppo. An estimated 200,000 people have now been killed and an estimated nine million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the war. Dr Richard Seager, a climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, said: 'We're not saying the drought caused the war. 'We’re saying that added to all the other stressors, it helped kick things over the threshold into open conflict. 'A drought of that severity was made much more likely by the ongoing human-driven drying of that region.' The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said that the 2006-2010 drought was the worst and longest on record compared to those in the 1950s, 1980s and 1990s. Particularly hard hit was the Fertile Crescent that spans Syria, Turkey and Iraq. Since 1900 the area has undergone warming of between 1 degree C and 1.2 degrees C and rainfall in the wet season has fallen by 10 per cent. The researchers said the trend matched that predicted by models of climate change caused by human carbon dioxide emissions. They said that the wind patterns bringing rain from the Mediterranean weakened while higher temperatures caused greater evaporation of moisture from the soils during the summer. The drought was so severe that the Euphrates river in the city of Raqqa, eastern Syria receded to the point shown above in 2010. Previous water levels can be seen clearly on the observation tower. Nearly half a million people left this area during the drought and 85 per cent of livestock were killed by the lack of water . Rising city populations and increasing poverty due to the drought led to the 2011 uprising which swelling into outright conflict which is now devastating much of the country like Aleppo's al-Shaar neighbourhood above . This caused agricultural production to plunge by a third in Syria. Combined with a growing population - from four million in the 1950s to 22 million now - this led to increasing levels of poverty and pressure within the country's urban areas. 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. 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. Shahrzad Mohtadi, a student at the school of international and public affairs at Columbia University who also took part in the research, said that this led to 1.5 million people moving from the countryside to the cities. The initial 2011 uprising and subsequent civil war has now mutated into a complex battle between factions, like the Kurdish People's Protection Unit pictured above, Islamic State fighters and the Assad regime . Writing in the journal, the authors said: 'Rapid demographic change encourages instability. 'Whether it was a primary or substantial factor is impossible to know, but drought can lead to devastating consequences when coupled with preexisting acute vulnerability.' It is the first study of its kind to look at how climate change has played a role in a current war. Professor Solomon Hsaing, a public policy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, said similar climatic changes had triggered the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in the region 4,200 years ago following a drought lasting several years. However, Marshall Burke, an environmental scientist at Stanford University, said: 'There were many things going on in the region and world at that time, such as high global food prices and the beginning of the Arab Spring, that could have also increased the likelihood of civil conflict.'
Study finds that Syria suffered the worst drought on record before the war . Researchers say rainfall in the region fell by 10% between 2006 and 2010 . Agricultural production in Syria fell by a third while the population soared . This led to an influx of people into cities causing rising poverty and unrest . This eventually led to the uprising that led to civil war breaking out in 2011 . Scientists say drought was likely worsened by man-made global warming . The research was conducted by scientists at Columbia University in NY .