Syria: Who are the rebels who took Aleppo?

It only took them three days to almost completely take over a city of millions. They routed dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government groups with almost no resistance. They could be the beginning of a new revolution in Syria. Armed rebels have taken Aleppo with a lightning offensive. After eight years of tyranny by the regime, the flags of the Syrian resistance are flying again in the country’s second largest city.

But who are the fighters who are now patrolling the streets in pick-up trucks, their rifles raised to the sky in a victory pose? Open the prisons, tear down statues, be celebrated as liberators, but at the same time be on the United States terror list?

Like everything in Syria, it is complicated. 13 different resistance factions are said to have been involved in the offensive, both moderate and Islamists. The rebellion is led by a group called Hai’at Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS). It is probably better known by the label it once gave itself at the outbreak of the civil war: Al-Nusra Front.

In 2011, as Assad’s power began to crumble, al-Qaeda founded it as its Syrian branch. Head of the Islamists: a man named Abu Mohammad al-Julani. He had previously fought against US troops in Iraq. Now he should overthrow the Syrian regime and establish a caliphate.

Assad famously remained in power – while al-Julani broke away from al-Qaeda to pursue his own goals in Syria. He gave his organization a new name and a more modern look. From then on, for him it was no longer about global jihad, but about the pragmatic exercise of power.

In large parts of Idlib province, which Assad was never able to recapture, the HTS set up a government apparatus with ten ministries and its own police force. It pays out social benefits there, coordinates aid deliveries with the UN, and enforced a mask requirement during Corona. As al-Nusra leader, al-Julani burned down churches. Now he reopened it and came into contact with Idlib’s Christian and Druze minorities. Unlike in Taliban Afghanistan, for example, women in Idlib are allowed to study and do not have to wear a full veil.

At the same time, the HTS is accused of human rights crimes of various kinds. Torture and execution are to take place in their prisons. The US State Department is offering $10 million for information leading to the capture of al-Julani. James Jeffrey, the former US special representative for Syria, once called the group “the least bad of various options” for the Syrian resistance.

Good Islamists? Evil Islamists? In Ankara this is of secondary importance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan counts the HTS among a number of allied, extreme opposition forces that ensure his influence in northern Syria.

It is considered unlikely that the HTS stormed out this week without the knowledge of the neighboring country. Al-Julani has probably trained his fighters for this exact moment for years. His units have trained snipers and an arsenal of drones. Experts unanimously report that Türkiye was able to avert the rebel operation that had apparently been planned for some time at the beginning of October. There was talk of a “limited offensive” at the time.

So now the broad rebel alliance has taken Aleppo in a very short time. Pictures of some fighters are circulating online with suspicious patches on their uniforms: black background, white writing, the identifying symbol of the Islamic State. Aleppo is a diverse city; Assyrian Christians and Kurds also live there.

To allay fears, Abu Mohammad al-Julani announced over the loudspeakers of the mosques: “Do not act cruelly, do not frighten children and do not terrorize our people – regardless of their religious affiliation. Aleppo remains as it has always been: a center of civilizations and cultures.”

The new Islamist governor of Aleppo is moderate. For now.