Hayat Tahrir al-Sham: Syria regime’s toughest foe in Idlib

BEIRUT: The Syrian regime and its Russian ally are threatening an offensive to retake the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria’s last rebel bastion, where jihadist group Hayat Tahrir alSham holds sway.

The jihadist alliance, the core of which is formed by the former AlQaeda branch in Syria, is likely to be the regime’s toughest foe. Here is some background. HTS first appeared in Syria in January 2012 as the Al-Nusra Front, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian ally still refer to the jihadist group by that name.

Classified as a “terrorist” group by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, it arrived in Syria as an extension of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The group’s current leader, a

HTS definitely retains a sizeable foreign fighter component, perhaps comprising at least 20 percent of its total fighting force. — Charles Lister, analyst at the Middle East Institute

Syrian who uses the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, is a veteran of fighting in Iraq.

In 2013, the group swore allegiance to Al-Qaeda before splitting with the global jihadist syndicate in July 2016 and renaming itself the Fatah al-Sham Front.

In 2017, it dissolved that group to form the backbone of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The group mainly consists of Syrian jihadists, estimated at about 30,000 fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The jihadists are “well organised and battle-hardened”, said Syria expert Fabrice Balanche.

“HTS definitely retains a sizeable foreign fighter component, perhaps comprising at least 20 percent of its total fighting force,” said Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute.

The fighters are mostly from the Middle East, “but also from Russian-speaking areas, Europe and south Asia,” he added. — AFP