In just 4 days in Syria, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, who overthrew the 24-year rule of Bashar al-Assad by flying his victory flags from Aleppo to Hama, then Homs, and then the capital Damascus, possesses surprising abilities.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) under the leadership of Abu Muhammad al-Jolani has become the most powerful armed opposition force in Syria, defeating the Syrian army.
A ploy by Bashar al-Assad’s regime also came to nothing when a photo of Abu Muhammad al-Julani being killed in a Russian strike went viral, but the news was quickly denied.
Abu Muhammad al-Jolani has long spent time with al-Qaeda, ISIS and other armed groups, but for nearly a decade he has carved out his own identity by separating himself from other armed groups focused solely on building an “Islamic Republic” in Syria.
Abu Muhammad al-Jolani’s real name is Ahmad Hussain al-Sharaa and he was born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a petroleum engineer. used to work
The family came to Syria in 1989 and settled near Damascus. In 2003, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani went to Iraq and joined al-Qaeda in the resistance to a US invasion.
Meanwhile, Abu Muhammad was also arrested by the American army in 2006, but he was released after 5 years of imprisonment.
After which Abu Muhammad al-Jolani established contact with the head of “Islamic State in Iraq” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
After which he returned to Syria, but with one mission: to create an armed al-Nusra group in Syria for al-Qaeda.
Abu Muhammad expanded his influence in opposition-held areas, particularly in Idlib, with responsibility for establishing al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front in Syria at the behest of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
However, in April 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi suddenly announced that his group ISIS was now dissociating itself from al-Qaeda and ordered his group to expand into Syria.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdari attempted to integrate Abu Muhammad al-Jolani’s Nusra Front into ISIS, but Abu Muhammad maintained his loyalty to al-Qaeda and parted ways with ISIS.
Later in 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the restoration of the caliphate in Syria, saying that Allah commanded us to fight our enemies.
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said in his first televised interview that year that Syria should be governed under the interpretation of Islamic law and that there would be no place for minorities such as Christians and Alawites in the country.
After this announcement, the United States, Russia and other allied forces came to help the Syrian government, as a result of which the ISIS stronghold Aleppo was captured by the government in July 2016 and the armed groups were pushed towards Idlib.
In Idlib, Bu Muhammad al-Jolani announced his own separate group, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and invited thousands of fighters fleeing from Aleppo to Idlib to join his group.
Later, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani retreated from the slogan of establishing a caliphate around the world and focused only on the Islamic government in Syria.
Abu Muhammad al-Julani brought together many smaller militant groups and organized the organization under the name of Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham.
The main purpose of which was to liberate Syria from the autocratic regime of the Assad family and make the country an Islamic democratic country by liberating it from the Iranian militia.
A number of militant factions such as Harakat Nooruddin al-Zinki, Liwa al-Haq and Jaish al-Sunnah joined forces with Abu Muhammad al-Jolani with this goal.
The theory of Abu Muhammad al-Jolani also gained a lot of popularity that he would provide full rights to the minorities after the establishment of the Islamic government.
In this way, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani became more acceptable to the world forces than his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Since the recapture of Aleppo, Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham has also made repeated assurances that other religious and ethnic minorities would be protected.
It should be remembered that Hayat Tahrir, which is called the new branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, has been listed as a “terrorist” organization by the United Nations, Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
