Who is Abu Mohammed al Golani, the leader of the rebels who overthrew the Syrian government
Al Golani, 42, considered a terrorist by the United States, has not appeared publicly since Damascus fell this Sunday. But he and his insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS (many of whose fighters are jihadists) will be a main actor.
For years, Al Golani worked to consolidate power when he was confined to Idlib province in the northwestern corner of Syria, while Assad’s government, backed by Iran and Russia, appeared solid in much of the country.
He maneuvered among extremist organizations while eliminating competitors and former allies. He sought to burnish the image of the de facto “salvation government” that has been ruling Idlib to win over international governments and reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities. And he built ties with various tribes and other groups.
Along the way, Al Golani ditched his radical Islamist guerrilla outfit and donned suits for press interviews, talking about building state institutions and decentralizing power to reflect Syria’s diversity.
“Syria deserves an institutional system of governance, not one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions,” he said in an interview with CNN last week, offering the possibility that HTS could eventually be dissolved after Assad’s fall. “Do not judge by words, but by actions,” he said.
The beginnings of Al Golani in Iraq
Al Golani’s ties to Al Qaeda date back to 2003, when he joined extremists fighting US troops in Iraq. The Syrian militant was detained by the US military but remained in Iraq. During that time, Al Qaeda usurped related groups and formed the Islamic State of Iraq, led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
In 2011, a popular uprising against Assad in Syria triggered a brutal government crackdown and led to an all-out war. Al Golani’s influence grew when Al Baghdadi sent him to Syria to establish an al Qaeda branch called the Nusra Front. The United States designated the new group as a terrorist organization. That designation still remains and the United States government has placed a $10 million reward on his head.
The Nusra Front and the Syrian conflict
As the civil war in Syria escalated in 2013, so did Al Golani’s ambitions. He defied Al Baghdadi’s calls to disband the Nusra Front and merge it with Al Qaeda’s operation in Iraq, to form the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
Al Golani, however, pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, which later disassociated itself from ISIS. The Nusra Front fought ISIS and eliminated much of its competition among the Syrian armed opposition to Assad.
In his first interview in 2014, Al Golani kept his face covered, telling a reporter from Qatar’s Al-Jazeera network that he rejected political talks in Geneva to end the conflict. He said his goal was to see Syria governed under Islamic law and made clear there was no room for the country’s Alawite, Shiite, Druze and Christian minorities.
Al Golani, consolidation of power and change of image
In 2016, Al Golani showed his face to the public for the first time in a video message announcing that his group was changing its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham — the Syrian Conquest Front — and cutting ties with Al Qaeda. “This new organization has no affiliation with any outside entity,” he said in the video, in which he appeared in military clothing and a turban.
The movement paved the way for Al Golani to assert full control over divided armed groups. A year later, their alliance was renamed again as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (meaning Organization to Liberate Syria) as the groups merged, consolidating Al Golani’s power in Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
HTS He then clashed with independent Islamist militiamen who opposed the merger, further strengthening Al Golani and his group as the leading power in northwestern Syria, capable of ruling with an iron fist.
With his consolidated power, Al Golani launched a transformation that few could have imagined. Replacing his military attire with a shirt and pants, he began to advocate religious tolerance and pluralism.
He appealed to the Druze community in Idlib, which the Nusra Front had previously attacked, and visited the families of Kurds killed by Turkish-backed militias.
In 2021, Al Golani had his first interview with an American journalist on PBS. Wearing a blazer, with his short hair slicked back, the now more restrained HTS leader said his group posed no threat to the West and that the sanctions imposed against it were unfair.
“Yes, we have criticized Western policies,” he said. “But waging a war against the United States or Europe from Syria, that is not true. “We didn’t say we wanted to fight.”
The situation in Syria after the departure of Bashar Al Assad
The insurgents control the capital and Assad, they say, fled and is hiding. For the first time after 50 years of his family’s iron fist, it is unclear how Syria will be governed.
Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often pitted against each other by Assad’s rule and years of war.
Many of them fear the possibility of Sunni Islamist extremists taking control. The country is also fragmented between disparate armed factions, and foreign powers from Russia and Iran to the United States, Türkiye and Israel play a role there.
Source: Ambito
