In simply three days, opposition fighters captured Syria’s second-largest metropolis, Aleppo, after the gorgeous collapse of presidency forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Mainly the offensive was Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who stands on the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a gaggle that has turned out to be essentially the most highly effective armed opposition pressure in Syria.
Maybe in an attempt to shake his rising repute, a photograph circulated online on Monday, purporting that al-Golani had been killed in a Russian strike—information that was shortly debunked because the picture was discovered to be doctored.
He’s now entrance and centre as his forces look to consolidate management over Aleppo and seize extra territory in Syria.
Right here’s a better take a look at al-Golani:
Current
Because the founding father of HTS, al-Golani has practically a decade sought to dissociate himself from different armed forces and their deal with transnational operations, switching as an alternative to specializing in creating an “Islamic republic” in Syria.
Since 2016, he has been positioning himself and his group as credible caretakers of a Syria liberated from al-Assad, who brutally repressed a preferred rebellion in the course of the Arab Spring in 2011, resulting in a warfare that has gone on ever since.
HTS ran the governorate of Idlib by way of the Syrian Salvation Authorities, which it established in 2017 to offer civil companies, training, healthcare, a judiciary and infrastructure in addition to handle funds and assist distribution
Nonetheless, HTS additionally guidelines with a heavy hand and doesn’t tolerate dissent, in line with activists, information stories, and native displays.
Unbiased journalism organisation Syria Direct stories that HTS is behind the disappearances of activists and has shot stay ammunition at protesters who accuse the group of denying companies to communities that oppose it.
Previous
He was born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the place his father worked as a petroleum engineer
The household returned to Syria in 1989, settling close to Damascus.
Little is thought of his time in Damascus earlier than his transfer in 2003 to Iraq, the place he joined al-Qaeda in Iraq as a part of the resistance to the American invasion that very same 12 months.
Arrested by US forces in Iraq in 2006 and held for 5 years, al-Golani was later tasked with establishing al-Qaeda’s department in Syria, al-Nusra Entrance, which grew its influence in opposition-held areas, particularly Idlib.
Al-Golani coordinated in these early years with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda’s “Islamic State in Iraq,” which later turned ISIL (ISIS).
In April 2013, al-Baghdadi instantly introduced that his group was slicing ties with al-Qaeda and would increase into Syria, successfully swallowing al-Nusra Entrance into a brand new group known as ISIL.
Al-Golani rejected this transformation, sustaining his allegiance to al-Qaeda.
Throughout his first televised interview in 2014, he informed Al Jazeera that Syria ought to be dominated below his group’s interpretation of “Islamic regulation” and the nation’s minorities, resembling Christians and Alawis, wouldn’t be accommodated.
Within the following years, al-Golani appeared to distance himself from al-Qaeda’s undertaking of building a “world caliphate” in all Muslim-majority international locations, seeming to focus as an alternative on building up his group inside Syria’s borders.
The breakup gave the impression to be a bid, in line with analysts, to emphasize his group’s nationwide versus transnational ambitions to teams in Idlib.
Then in July 2016, Aleppo fell to the regime, and the armed teams there began to move to Idlib, which was nonetheless opposition-held. Across the identical time, al-Golani introduced that his group had modified to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
By early 2017, 1000’s of fighters poured into Idlib fleeing Aleppo, and al-Golani introduced the merging of numerous of these teams along with his personal to type HTS.
The said goal of HTS is to liberate Syria from Assad’s autocratic authorities, “expelling Iranian militias” from the nation, and establish a state in line with their very own interpretation of “Islamic regulation,” in line with the Centre for Strategic and Worldwide Research think tank in Washington, DC.
Future
As opposition fighters retook Aleppo and moved south, al-Golani seems to have taken an extra accommodating stance in direction of Syria’s minorities.
Since capturing Aleppo, the group has provided assurances that non-Secular and ethnic minorities can be protected.
In accordance with Hassan Hassan, a Syrian professional on armed teams within the Levant, al-Golani needs to model HTS as a reputable governing entity in Syria and a potential accomplice in world counterterrorism efforts.
In Idlib, he sought to accomplice with different armed opposition teams, resembling Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, Liwa al-Haq, and Jaysh al-Sunna, in line with CSIS, and to keep away from earlier allies, like Hurras al-Din, the brand new al-Qaeda department in Syria.
HTS is at present labelled a “terrorist” organisation by the United Nations, Turkey, the US, and the European Union.
Al-Golani has mentioned this designation is unfair since his group has renounced its previous allegiances in favour of a nationwide one.
No matter al-Golani’s said home ambitions, as the pinnacle of the most important opposition armed group in Syria, his influence on the nation will echo nationally and internationally.
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Sourcing information and pictures from aljazeera.com
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