After a week of swift advances, Syrian rebels declared on Sunday that they had seized control of Damascus, effectively ending President Bashar al-Assad’s rule without facing any resistance from government forces.
Reports from Reuters indicated that Assad, who had been in power for 24 years, fled the country on a plane to an undisclosed location.
The offensive, which toppled Assad, was led by Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the most powerful opposition group in Syria. HTS is an Islamic organization that was once linked to Al-Qaeda. The United States had designated HTS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2018 and offered a $10 million reward for information about Julani.
Who is Mohammed Al-Julani?
Born in Saudi Arabia in 1982, Julani spent his early childhood in Riyadh before his family moved back to Syria in 1989. He joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2003 during the U.S. invasion of the Middle East. In 2011, Julani founded HTS under the name Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda.
Julani also had ties to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (ISIS), but in 2013, he severed ties with Baghdadi and fought a brutal conflict against ISIS after they attempted to absorb Nusra Front.
In 2021, after ISIS collapsed following the death of Baghdadi, Julani solidified HTS’s control in Syria’s Idlib province and established the Salvation Government, a civil administration.
With Syrian rebels now in control of Damascus, experts believe Julani aims to position HTS as a legitimate governing body in Syria and a potential partner in global counter terrorism efforts.
