Bounty offered

Syria: Wanted terrorist attacks rebel groups

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani leads the Syrian rebel group HTS, which overthrew the ruler Assad.

(Bild: AFP)

Who are the rebel groups in Syria that put long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad on the run? Their leader is certainly no stranger - the USA put a bounty on his head years ago. 

They call themselves Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), loosely translated as "Committee for the Liberation of the Levant", and are a coalition of several Islamist militias. What may sound like a disorganized bunch at first glance has nevertheless managed to overthrow Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and his regime in a very short space of time. The EU and other countries have already classified the HTS militias as a terrorist organization - and not without good reason, even if reports of escalating violence have so far been limited. 

The leader is no stranger
Its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, is certainly no stranger. The HTS originated from a branch of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Jolani had operated in secret for years. 

+3

Fotos

Today he is in the spotlight, making statements and speaking to the international media. He gradually shed the jihadist turban he wore at the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011 in favor of a military uniform.

"A pragmatic radical"
Since his break with al-Qaeda in 2016, Jolani has been trying to smooth over his image and appear more moderate. The scientist Thomas Pierret from France's national research institute CNRS calls him a "pragmatic radical". In 2014, Jolani was at the height of his radicalism, says the expert, pointing out that he wanted to assert himself against the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) at the time. Since then, he has "toned down his rhetoric".

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has taken off the Islamist turban and presents himself as "more open-minded" - from a Western perspective, however, the change is probably marginal.

(Bild: AFP/AFP )

Born in 1982, Jolani - or Golani, depending on the spelling - grew up in Mazzeh, a wealthy district of Damascus. He comes from a wealthy family and was a good student. During the current offensive, he began using his real name: Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Family roots in the Golan
In 2021, he told the US television network PBS that his battle name was a reference to his family's roots in the Golan Heights. According to him, his grandfather was forced to flee after the Israeli occupation of the area in 1967.

According to a report on the Middle East Eye website, Golani first felt drawn to the ideas of the jihadists after the attacks of September 11, 2001. He had taken part in "secret sermons and panel discussions in isolated suburbs of Damascus".

From Iraq back home again
After the US-led invasion of Iraq, he left Syria to fight in the neighboring country. In Iraq, the current HTS leader joined al-Qaeda and was subsequently imprisoned.

In March 2011, when the revolt against Assad's government began in Syria, he returned to his home country and founded the Al-Nusra Front - the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, from which HTS later emerged. In 2013, he refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who later became the emir of IS. Instead, he pledged his loyalty to the emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In May 2015, Golani stated that, unlike IS, he had no intention of carrying out attacks against the West. He also stated that there would be no revenge attacks against the Alawite minority, from which Assad's family originates, if Assad were defeated.

Differentiation from Al-Qaeda
When Golani cut ties with al-Qaeda, he explained that he was doing so in order to avoid giving the West any reason to attack his organization. According to Pierret, he has since tried to set himself on the path to becoming an "aspiring statesman".

In north-western Syria, Golani forced rival Islamist groups to merge with HTS in January 2017, claiming control over large parts of the north-western Syrian province of Idlib. HTS established a civilian government in the areas under its control and set up a kind of state in Idlib, while at the same time crushing its rivals.

Human rights violations and war crimes
During this time, HTS was accused by residents and human rights groups of brutal actions against dissidents - the United Nations classifies these as war crimes.

Perhaps aware of the fear and hatred that his militia provoked, Golani addressed the residents of Aleppo to reassure them that nothing would happen to them. There is a large Christian minority in Aleppo. He also called on his fighters to ensure security in the areas that have now been captured.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

Aron Lund from the think tank Century International explained that this was a good political move in the first instance. "The less panic there is locally and internationally, and the more Golani appears like a responsible actor and not a toxic jihadi extremist, the easier his task becomes. Is he completely sincere? Certainly not," he said. "But it's the smartest thing to say and do right now."

"Krone" commentary by Christian Hauenstein: The new strong man 
Jubilation has broken out in large parts of Syria. Jubilation over the fall of the Assad clan, which had brought so much suffering to the country for decades. The Syrian community also held a joyous rally in front of the Vienna Opera House. However, it is by no means certain that the Assad terror in Syria will not soon be followed by new terror.

The new strongman in the country is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a terrorist for whom the USA has put a bounty of ten million dollars on his head. The EU has also classified his Islamist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a terrorist group.

Al-Jolani was radicalized in the course of the US invasion of Iraq. He joined the terrorist organization al-Qaeda and was subsequently imprisoned for five years. Back in Syria, he founded the Al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, with which he later fell out as well as with the Islamic State (IS). In contrast to Al-Qaeda and IS, the HTS, which emerged from the Al-Nusra Front, does not want a global jihad; it limits itself to Syria, to the Levant, as it says itself.

In the prisons of the HTS in the province of Idlib, which it has controlled for years, things were not much different than in the Assad torture camps. And even if al-Jolani has taken off his turban, trimmed his beard and verbally "eaten the proverbial chalk", doubts are more than justified. In his convictions, he was always a Stone Age Islamist.