HTS: Evolution of a Jihadi Group

Article

HTS: Evolution of a Jihadi Group

By Christopher Solomon on July 13, 2022

Christopher Solomon chronicles the evolution of Hayat Tahrir al Sham in Syria.

HTS fighters May 2022 — Hayat Tahrir al Sham fighters in a video released in May 2022
Image Credit

Since 2017, Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS)——has been the dominant Islamist militia fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. It is an umbrella group for five smaller armed factions to have up to . A Sunni Muslim movement, HTS just over half of Idlib Province and small parts of surrounding provinces—a of northwest Syria roughly the size of Rhode Island.

HTS is a hardline group committed to replacing the Assad government with an Islamic state. As a fighting force, HTS has demonstrated ruthlessness—employing a mix of political coercion and violence—to maintain control over its territory. As the regime recaptured parts of Syria, rebels from at least five Islamist were evacuated to the HTS stronghold in a series of deals with the regime. HTS emerged as the dominant group.

The United States designated HTS as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018. HTS has since tried to project�� a more . It jettisoned the transnational goal of exporting its ideology and adopted a local focus on replacing the Assad regime. As of mid-2022, HTS had military superiority over other jihadist groups in Idlib. It had also withstood years of the regime’s ground assaults as well as Russian airstrikes.

The Leadership

Abu Mohammed al Jolani, the nom de guerre of , is the controversial HTS leader. He was born in 1982. After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, he the insurgency against U.S. forces led by al Qaeda in neighboring Iraq. He returned to Syria after the uprising against Assad erupted in 2011. In 2012, he Jabhat al Nusra, or the Nusra Front.

Jolani Rewards for Justice poster — U.S. Rewards for Justice poster of Mohammed al Jolani
Image Credit

In April 2013, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), claimed that Jabhat al Nusra was a Syrian subordinate to his organization. But the factions soon clashed—killing —as they competed for fighters in Syria. Jolani ultimately and pledged loyalty to al Qaeda, which provided fighters, arms and money. But in 2016, Jolani with al Qaeda. Jolani oversaw the consolidation of other extremist factions into the newly branded HTS in 2017.

The United States Jolani as a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2013. In 2017, the of $10 million for information leading to his arrest.

HTS has three factions, Orwa Ajjoub, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden. They include “those with a high sense of pragmatism led by al Jolani”; a second faction with a “vested interest in HTS’s dominance”; and “a minority ideological faction largely sidelined by al Jolani and his supporters,” Ajjoub wrote in 2021.

Jolani’s inner circle is predominantly Syrian, which reflects his efforts to “recast the group as more of a local Syrian organization,” , an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said in 2022. Since most hardline elements “have either left [HTS] or were killed or completely marginalized,” Jolani’s faction drives the group’s agenda.

HTS’s short-term goal is to “stabilize the area under our control and administer it through an alliance of local Syrian revolutionary forces that are committed to protecting Idlib,” Jolani the International Crisis Group in January 2020. But HTS is “a project built from circumstance and won’t last forever,” he said. “We don’t have a predetermined long-term plan.” HTS will someday develop a political manifesto “that could clarify our identity,” he said.

map of northwest Syria — Northwest Syria
Image Credit

Jolani, who once wore a turban and military fatigues, has cultivated the image of a community-oriented civic leader. In August 2020, he a restaurant in Idlib and served people food during Eid al Adha. In January 2022, he Western-style clothing as he met local residents at the opening ceremony for a new road. In May 2022, he a marketplace in Idlib City to join celebrations for Eid al Fitr at the end of Ramadan. He stopped to take selfies, as people chanted “Long live our emir!”

Jolani has appealed to the United States to remove its terrorist designations of and HTS. “Through our 10-year journey in this revolution, we haven’t posed any threat to Western or European society: no security threat, no economic threat, nothing,” Jolani told in February 2021. “That’s why this designation is politicized.”

Mufti Abd al Rahim Atun, who goes by Abu Abdullah al Shami, is a senior religious figure close to Jolani. Atun is the of the HTS Sharia Council and one of the group’s highest-ranking . “Our group does not pose a threat to the West… We are the last to fight the Syrian regime and we will not be able to eliminate it without international assistance,” he French newspaper Le Temps in 2020. In September 2021, after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, he a Taliban style of jihad in Syria.

Mustafa Qadid, who goes by Abu Abd al Rahman al Zirbeh, is a high-ranking HTS commander. He reportedly was a baker in Idlib before joining Jabhat al Nusra as a driver for Atun in 2012. He later became a military commander. Qadid has taken over much of the financial sector in HTS territory. Jolani appointed him commander of the Crossing Management Body, which manages border crossings with Turkey in the north and regime-held areas in the south and east. ��

��

Governance

HTS does not directly govern territory, but it has the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG). Formed in 2017, the civilian-led SSG administers the opposition-held part of Idlib and surrounding areas. SSG have included both independent as well as men linked to HTS. “We will remain independent, meaning we won't tolerate pressure from any side,” Dr. Mohammed al Sheikh, the first prime minister of the SSG, in November 2017.

Experts, however, have debated the extent of the SSG’s independence. HTS “is fashioning the new administrative structures to put local residents center stage, while the group retains control, or at least a veto, over strategic decisions,” Haid Haid, a fellow at Chatham House, in 2019. The SSG “is no more than a tool to provide the ‘legal’ and administrative frameworks for HTS’s takeover of the region’s economy and resources,” Nisreen Al-Zaraee and Karam Shaar wrote in a 2021 for the Middle East Institute.

Jolani at a Syrian Salvation Government session — Abu Mohammed al Jolani at a Syrian Salvation Government Shura Council session
Image Credit

Other analysts have argued that the SSG is not the same as HTS. The SSG “participates in HTS’s power strategy but cannot be considered an offshoot … or its civil branch,” Jerome Drevon and Patrick Haenni in a 2021 paper for the European University Institute.

The SSG provides a range of public services and utilities, including water and electricity. It has , including economy and resources; health; interior; justice; religious affairs; education; higher education and scientific research; agriculture and irrigation; development and humanitarian affairs; and local administration and services.

The SSG’s legislative body, the Shura Council, 75 men. Candidates for the council or to head ministries are reportedly pre-selected. Ali Abdulrahman Keda, an engineer and former member of the Syrian Army, was by a majority of the Shura Council in December 2019 as the third prime minister.

The SSG’s Shura Council “acts as a pseudo parliament to represent different regions of Syria, sectorial interests, and communities,” said Drevon, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. HTS has its own Shura Council that is “entirely separate,” he said. But SSG and HTS structures overlap in some areas. The Majlis al Ifta, or the SSG religious council, includes individuals who are also members of the HTS Majlis Shari, which is the group’s highest religious authority.

Since taking control of Idlib in 2017, HTS has from imposing Islamic practice in line with its Salafist, or ultra-conservative, ideology. “Governance should be consistent with Islamic Sharia, but not according to the standards of ISIS or even Saudi Arabia,” Jolani Khalifa during a visit to Idlib in 2021. HTS enforced gender segregation in schools and universities but did not impose its own curriculum, Khalifa said. HTS leaders boasted that a high percentage of university students were women. The group has also not banned smoking or compelled women to veil their faces. Morality police stopped patrolling the streets by January 2022, The Washington Post��. HTS, however, reportedly monitors social media and has TikTok users who post purportedly immoral videos.

Some jihadists in Idlib alleged that HTS, in focusing on public services, had lost its way. HTS faced for forming a soccer league for its fighters in March 2022. “The opposition and the Islamic factions are preoccupied with normalization with the regime and improving their image before the West by humiliating themselves and playing soccer,” Abu Mohammed al Halabi, a jihadist from Idlib .

HTS has not tolerated public opposition. In November 2019, residents of Kafr Takharim stormed police stations and expelled officials linked to HTS after olive oil producers were forced to turn over oil as part of zakat, mandatory donations that are redistributed to the poor. HTS responded by shelling��the town of Kafr Takharim. At least five people were reportedly killed.

The Economy

HTS has to defend and provide for the estimated four million��people under its jurisdiction, which includes more than two million internally people from other parts of Syria. “The humanitarian issue is the most important issue that we can work on together, to provide these people with dignified lives,” Jolani PBS in 2021.

The results have been mixed. In December 2021, HTS promised to bread through SSG-run bakeries to combat rising food prices. But in March 2022, the government of grain, flour, ghee, and other food staples after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a global wheat shortage. Residents have that the HTS control of trade led to food shortages amid high rates of poverty and .

As of mid-2022, more than 90 percent of people living in northwest Syria humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. But U.N.-supported aid, sent through the border with Turkey, reached only 60 percent each month. On July 8, 2022, Russia a one-year extension of the assistance. It that aid ended up in the hands of HTS “terrorists.”

Hospitals may have to turn patients away, schools may have to close, and food assistance will be cut off, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in July 2022. People “will die because of this vote – and the country who shamelessly deployed the veto today.”

HTS has relied on tax revenue at border crossings. Bab al Hawa has been the most important crossing for both aid deliveries and trade. HTS has reportedly millions of dollars monthly in . It reportedly controls other crossings, including the informal Dorriyeh crossing with Turkey. HTS also smuggles people and goods on the crossings.��

HTS, often in cooperation with the SSG, has reportedly much of the economy in northwest Syria. As of 2021, HTS, through Watad Petroleum, was earning some $1 million a month from a monopoly on importing and distributing gasoline and diesel fuel, according to a U.N. . HTS is also heavily in financial services and telecommunications.

The Military

HTS fighters are mainly equipped with AK-47 rifles, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). A significant amount of its arsenal was from regime bases and rival militant groups. The militia has also deployed suicide bombers and planted improvised explosive devices against Assad’s forces. The group’s military wing has 11 units that are each named after the companions of the Prophet Mohammed.

HTS elite fighters May 2020 — HTS elite fighters known as "Red Bands" in May 2020
Image Credit

Earlier in the Syrian civil war, HTS was active beyond Idlib, including near the capital. In 2017, some in Ghouta launched a counteroffensive to break the regime’s siege around the suburb of Damascus. In March 2017, HTS suicide bombers ��government forces beyond Ghouta as its fighters briefly pushed deep into Damascus, but the advance was foiled. HTS forces were eventually evacuated to Idlib following the ceasefire agreements struck with Russia and the Assad regime in 2018.

HTS has sustained control despite repeated attacks by the Syrian military and Russian airstrikes. In 2019 and 2020, Syrian offensives on Idlib recaptured 1,457 square miles, including Kafranbel, Saraqeb, and Maarat al Numan as well as the M5 highway. But the operations were costly. HTS waves of suicide car bombs and used and artillery against Syrian forces.

In March 2020, Russia and Turkey agreed on a ceasefire. Between March 2020 and the summer of 2022, the military situation in Idlib had stalemated due to the ceasefire, with occasional Russian and sporadic clashes between HTS and government forces.

In May 2022, HTS signaled its military preparedness at on four fronts in southern Idlib, eastern Idlib, northern Latakia and the area northwest of Aleppo. A video on HTS’s Amjaad media channel showed armored military vehicles, including tanks, moving among destroyed buildings and through the countryside.

Islamist Rivals

Among Islamist groups, HTS has long competed with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for followers and territory. They vied for control over eastern Syria as ISIS established a caliphate that stretched from northeast Syria into Iraq. Since 2017, HTS has and arrested ISIS cells operating in areas under its control. It has reportedly handed ISIS fighters over to . Two leaders of ISIS—Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (in October 2019) and Abu Ibrahim al Qurayshi (in February 2022)—were killed in Idlib by U.S.-led operations.��

Hurras al Din fighters in 2019
Image Credit

HTS has also subdued Islamist rivals, such as Ahrar al Sham, and absorbed its fighters. In January 2017, Abu Jaber al Sheikh, a senior Ahrar al Sham leader, defected and took a dozen commanders and 1,000 fighters to join HTS. “We left Ahrar al Sham because of all the rivalries at the leadership level,” Abu Amer al Homsi, another former Ahrar al Sham leader told in mid-2021. “We had no more laws to follow, and the movement turned into groups bickering over positions and interests, which made it lose its strength.”

In July 2020, HTS security operations against Hurras al Din, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda. In 2021, HTS also confronted Jundallah, another Sunni jihadi group opposed to the Assad regime, in Latakia province—and prevailed. In a subsequent , Jundallah fighters agreed to either join HTS or surrender their weapons and return to civilian life.

HTS has on the other Islamist groups in the region. As of 2021, HTS had reportedly more than 170 foreign fighters. In April 2022, it reportedly 50 foreign jihadis—from France, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey—to Turkey. They included some members of ISIS.

HTS has struggled to navigate between ideological purists and realists. In March 2022, HTS hosted a�� marking the 11th anniversary of the Syrian uprising, but it banned participants from displaying any other group’s jihadist banners. Its security forces also removed people who chanted slogans against Jolani slogans. Afterwards, jihadists blasted Jolani for allowing men and women to mix together at the commemoration.

The movement has repressed rival radicals “primarily because they pose an issue to its own organizational cohesion and the stability of the province,” said Jerome Drevon, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “This is aligned with Western countries' views, but this is incidental.” HTS has “disavowed” al Qaeda, repressed its followers, and blocked their activities in Idlib, Drevon said.

Yet HTS has also engaged in dialogue with other armed opposition groups. In May 2022, it held talks with the Levant Front, a key faction in the Syrian National Army backed by Turkey to coordinate logistics in northwest Syria. “They agreed on several points, including halting media attacks against each other, facilitating the movement of the Levant Front fighters into Idlib, and vice versa for HTS fighters who would be able to enter the city of Azaz and other Levant Front-controlled areas,” The two groups also discussed eventually uniting the factions.

Regional Ties

In 2018, Turkey formally declared HTS to be a terrorist group. Yet Turkey has also worked tolerated and occasionally with the movement.�� “HTS is an effective fighting force against the real terrorists and an effective fighting force against Assad, and the Turks need that,” James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, . HTS is “the least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places right now in the Middle East.”

Erdogan and Putin in 2018 — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018
Image Credit

In 2018, negotiations between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin led to the creation of a demilitarized zone—between nine to 12 miles long—at the border between Turkey and Syria. It was short-lived. In May 2019, Syrian launched an offensive against HTS and another rebel coalition in Idlib and Hama provinces.

In February 2020, Turkey launched to counter an offensive by the Syrian regime in Idlib. In March 2020, Turkey and Russia brokered another agreement that created a nearly four-mile corridor along M4 highway that was patrolled by Turkish and Russian forces.

Since the 2020 ceasefire, HTS and the regime have engaged in sporadic clashes that included shelling and sniper fire. In March and April 2022, Russia conducted on HTS targets around the town of Maarat al Naasan in Idlib province. In 2021, at his fourth inauguration address, Assad that his top priorities included “liberating the land and confronting the economic and social ramifications of the war.” But neither side has recaptured areas it held before the ceasefire.

“Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one,” Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, in April 2022. “The current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syria’s absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political settlement is not urgent.”

Timeline

January 2012: Jabhat al Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate, group was founded after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.
��
Dec. 10, 2012: The United States designated Jabhat al Nusra as a foreign terrorist organization.
��
April 2013: Jabhat al Nusra rejected Abu Bakr al Baghdad’s claim that it had merged with the Islamic State in Iraq. Instead, Jolani to al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al Zawahiri.��
��
January 2014: Jabhat al Nusra reportedly gained as many as 8,000 . The group cooperated with most other Syrian rebel factions, but some of its units clashed with ISIS.
��
April 2015: Jabhat al Nusra and other Islamist groups launched a on an Syrian Air Force intelligence base in Aleppo. The militants reportedly detonated explosives in a tunnel near the facility and launched mortar rounds. Government forces, however, carried out airstrikes against rebel positions and repelled the attack.
��
July 2016: Jabhat al Nusra was renamed Jabhat Fatah al Sham (Front for the Conquest of the Levant); it renounced allegiance to al Qaeda.
��
Oct. 6, 2016: Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, on Jabhat Fatah al Sham to leave Aleppo. He charged that its 1,000 fighters were essentially holding 275,000 civilians “hostage” as Syrian and Russian forces tried to take the city. More than 300 people died and more than 1,200 had been injured in the fighting over the previous two weeks. “If you did decide to leave, in dignity, and with your weapons, to Idlib, or anywhere you wanted to go, I personally, I am ready physically to accompany you,” de Mistura said.
��
December 2016: Jabhat Fatah al Sham, a predecessor to HTS, fighters from Aleppo as Syrian forces recaptured the northern city. The fighters were to Idlib province.
��
January 2017: Jabhat Fatah al Sham with Ahrar al Sham in a competition for territory and fighters in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
��
January 2017: Jabhat Fatah al Sham merged with four smaller Syrian groups to create Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS). They jointly supported the creation of the Syrian Salvation Government in Idlib.
��
July 2017: HTS Bab al Hawa, a strategic border crossing between Syria and Turkey, from Ahrar al Sham. HTS has earned up to millions monthly from customs fees imposed on goods crossing the border.
��
Sept. 15, 2017: Turkey, Russia, and Iran agreed to create four “de-escalation” zones in five provinces, including Idlib. Turkish forces entered Idlib, including areas held by HTS, in October 2017 and established 12 observation posts.
��
March 2018: HTS fighters in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, were allowed to relocate to Idlib province after a ceasefire was negotiated with the government. Russia and Turkey agreed to establish a around Idlib.
��
February through April 2018: HTS clashed with Ahrar al Sham and the Nour al Din Zenki Movement in Idlib and western Aleppo provinces. The fighting ended in January 2019, with HTS in control of more of Idlib province.
��
July 2019: HTS with ISIS cells in the towns of Saraqeb and Jisr al Shughur in Idlib province.
��
October 2019: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military operation in the town of Barisha in Idlib province. HTS Baghdadi’s death. ��
��
January 2020: The Syrian military the town of Maarat al Numan in Idlib. HTS suffered heavy losses; hundreds of thousands of civilians fled towards the Turkish border.
��
February-March 2020: Turkey Operation Spring Shield, including air strikes, against Syrian and Russian forces in Idlib. It reached a tenuous ceasefire with Russia that remained in place into 2022.
��
February 2021: In an with PBS Frontline, HTS leader Jolani sought to distance himself from his past affiliation with al Qaeda. He stressed the HTS role in fighting the Assad regime. The mission of HTS, he said, was “defending the people, defending their safety, their religion, their honor, their property and standing against a criminal tyrant like Bashar al Assad.”
��
January 2022: Villagers in Deir Hassan, north of Idlib City, against HTS for repressing local media and detaining dissidents. Several were held in the town of al Sahara in the small HTS-controlled part of Aleppo province. Women, who played a significant role in the protests, called for HTS to free detainees.
��
February 2022: ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al Qurayshi was killed in a U.S. military raid on Atmeh in Idlib. HTS condemned the U.S. operation and that it was unaware of Qurayshi’s presence in its territory. Other jihadi groups accused HTS of collaborating with the United States.
��
March 2022: HTS faced over its policies on food prices and taxes on local goods, amid the global food crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
��
May 2022: HTS with the Levant Front, a key faction of the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army, to coordinate on logistics in northwest Syria. The groups agreed to stop attacking each other in the media and to allow fighters to travel in and out of each other’s territory.