My 96' subaru Impreza made weird klunking noise now it won't start what is wrong?

[Dan]

My 96' Subaru Impreza made weird klunking noise for about 3 days then one night I parked it and the next morning it wouldn't start it was turning over fine but the engine was Making no attempt to start the only engine like sounds it was making were small back fires which sound like a little bang, it is stick so after it didn't start i rolled it down my drive way backwards and popped the clutch in reverse to jump start it and when I did it felt like the engine had no compression what is wrong with it could it be the timing belt or rod knock