In just three days, opposition forces captured Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, following the sudden collapse of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the area. Leading the offensive was Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has become the most powerful armed opposition group in Syria.
Perhaps in an attempt to tarnish his rising reputation, a photo allegedly showing al-Julani killed in a Russian strike surfaced online on Monday. However, it was quickly revealed to be fake.
Al-Julani is now in the spotlight as his forces work to consolidate control over Aleppo and claim more territory in Syria.
Here’s who he is.
“Rules with an iron fist”
As the founder of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Julani has spent nearly a decade trying to distance himself and his group from other armed forces focused on transnational operations, redirecting toward establishing an “Islamic Republic” in Syria.
Since 2016, al-Julani has positioned himself as a credible leader of a Syria free from Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which brutally suppressed the popular uprising during the Arab Spring in 2011, leading to the ongoing protracted war.
HTS governs the Idlib governorate through the “Syrian Salvation Government,” established in 2017, providing civil services, education, healthcare, judiciary, infrastructure management, and aid distribution.
However, activists, media, and local observers report that HTS rules with an iron fist, tolerating no dissent. Some media reported that HTS has been responsible for the disappearance of activists and has used live ammunition against protesters accusing them of denying services to communities opposed to their rule.
Former Al-Qaeda member
Al-Julani, born Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as an oil engineer, returned with his family to Syria in 1989 and settled near Damascus.
Little is known about his life in Damascus before he went to Iraq in 2003, where he joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq as part of the resistance against the United States (U.S.) invasion that year. U.S. forces detained him in 2006, holding him for five years. After his release, he was tasked with establishing Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, the Al-Nusra Front, which gained influence in opposition-controlled areas, particularly in Idlib.
In the early years, al-Julani cooperated with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the “Islamic State in Iraq,” the precursor to ISIS. However, in 2013, al-Baghdadi announced the severance of ties with Al-Qaeda and expanded his influence in Syria through a new group, ISIS. Al-Julani rejected this merger and remained loyal to Al-Qaeda.
During his first television interview in 2014, al-Julani stated that Syria should be governed by his group’s interpretation of “Islamic law” and that minorities such as Christians and Alawites would not be welcome.
Over the following years, al-Julani appeared to distance himself from Al-Qaeda’s goal of establishing a “global caliphate” across Muslim-majority countries, focusing instead on building his group within Syria’s borders.
Analysts view this split as an attempt to emphasize national, rather than transnational, ambitions for his group in Idlib.
In July 2016, Aleppo fell to regime forces, and armed groups began relocating to Idlib, which remained under opposition control. Around this time, al-Julani announced his group had transformed into Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
Establishment of HTS
By early 2017, thousands of fighters had arrived in Idlib fleeing Aleppo, and al-Julani declared the merger of several groups into HTS.
HTS’s stated goal is to liberate Syria from Assad’s autocratic government, “expel Iranian militants” from the country, and establish a state under its own interpretation of “Islamic law,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington.
As opposition fighters recaptured Aleppo and advanced south, al-Julani seemed to adopt a softer stance toward Syrian minorities.
Following the capture of Aleppo, the group assured that religious and ethnic minorities would be protected.
According to Hassan Hassan, a Syrian expert on armed groups in the Levant, al-Julani aims to position HTS as a credible governing entity in Syria and a potential partner in global counterterrorism efforts.
According to CSIS, in Idlib, he has sought partnerships with other armed opposition groups, such as Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki, Liwa al-Haqq, and Jaysh al-Sunna, while avoiding former allies like Hurras al-Din, Al-Qaeda’s new branch in Syria.
The United Nations (UN), Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union (EU) currently classify HTS as a “terrorist” organization.
Al-Julani has stated that this designation is unfair, as his group has abandoned past allegiances in favor of national objectives.
Regardless of al-Julani’s stated domestic ambitions, as the leader of Syria’s largest opposition armed group, his influence on the country will resonate on both national and international levels, Al Jazeera writes.
Photo: US State Department
E.Dz.
