When the Syrian city of Aleppo was captured by anti-government rebels, photos surfaced of a handsome man dressed in military uniform leading the attack. The man’s name is Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, who is the head of a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
After the occupation of Aleppo, the name of al-Jolani has once again become the center of debate and controversy. One of the reasons for this is that the group he is leading has been sanctioned by the United Nations and some Muslim countries, in addition to Western countries, and has been given the status of a ‘terrorist group’.
Abu al-Jolani is the main leader of the movement against the Bashar al-Assad regime in northwestern Syria and controls several areas along Aleppo province. It is home to around 3 million people displaced by the Syrian civil war and is considered a stronghold of the anti-government movement.
But the surprise attack that began a week ago is perhaps the most dramatic chapter yet in the life of Abu al-Jolani, the most enigmatic and controversial leader of Syria’s civil war.
Who is Abu Muhammad al-Jolani?
According to BBC Monitoring, there is a variety of information about al-Jolani’s real name, date, and place of birth, which adds to his mysterious personality.
According to United Nations reports, Abu al-Jolani was born between 1975 and 1979, while according to Interpol, his date of birth is 1975.
According to an interview given to American TV network PBS, his real name is Ahmed Hussein and he is called Abu al-Jolani because of the Golan Heights, where his family has historical ties.
In the same interview, he said that he was born in 1982 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a petroleum engineer. In 1989, his family returned to Syria and he was raised near Damascus.
According to some reports, he studied medicine in Damascus but joined al-Qaeda in Iraq during his third year when the US invaded in 2003. He is said to have soon become a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. But after al-Zarqawi’s death in 2006, he moved to Lebanon, where he trained the Lebanese militant group Jund al-Sham.
After that, there are reports of his return to Iraq where he was arrested by the US Army. After being imprisoned for some time, when he was released in 2008, he joined the so-called Islamic State.
He is said to have been held at the American prison camp called Camp Buka, where his ideas matured and relations with the leaders of the future so-called Islamic State were also developed.
According to some reports, al-Jolani returned to Syria in August 2011 and opened an al-Qaeda branch aimed at fighting President Bashar al-Assad. However, a Lebanese newspaper has claimed that al-Jolani is actually an Iraqi citizen named after the area of Fallujah called Al-Jullan and that he belongs to that area.
After taking over the leadership of the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Jolani’s personal information was reportedly kept so secret that most members of the group did not know anything about their leader.
Separation from al-Qaeda
In 2011, when the uprising in Syria turned into a civil war, al-Jolani arrived in Syria on a special mission on behalf of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish a local branch of the Islamic State. In 2012, Jabhat al-Nusra was launched and became the Iraqi branch of the Islamic State.
However, in 2013, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi formally announced the merger of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State, al-Jolani rejected it and declared his support for al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.
This was the time when Jabhat al-Nusra was becoming militarily powerful. In July 2016, al-Jolani announced that his group was no longer affiliated with al-Qaeda and would now be called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
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In 2017, the group was formed into a coalition called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which included other organizations and was headed by al-Jolani.
The organization prioritized local-level issues, and in 2021, al-Jolani told the American broadcaster PBS that he had abandoned al-Qaeda’s ideology of global jihad and was now aiming to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and establish an Islamic system in the country.
In this interview, al-Jolani said, “When we were in al-Qaeda, we were against targeting European or American targets. We never did that.” He said that the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist group was an ‘unfair’ and ‘political’ decision.
Aleppo
Al-Jolani is said to adapt himself to the situation. At first, his ideologies were close to those of al-Qaeda, but later he adopted a local agenda.
Under his leadership, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham implemented the Islamic system in Aleppo province, built courts, and even established a police force. He has considerable influence in Aleppo, which is also considered the center of the opposition in Syria. This area is also important because it borders Turkey.
During this time, al-Jolani showed expertise in local administration and diplomacy along with military operations and emerged as a key player in the Syrian conflict.
In the areas controlled by their group, there is a government that manages the economy, health, education, and even security. Al-Jolani has said that there is an Islamic government in these areas, but not under the ideology of the Islamic State.
However, according to reports and analysts, his group has taken a tough stance against its opponents. There are also reports that his group has tortured prisoners.
Al-Jolani has been denying the allegations and has been inviting human rights organizations to visit prisons under his jurisdiction and assess the conditions there.
It should be noted that the US government also declares al-Jolani a ‘terrorist’ and a reward of 10 million dollars has been set for providing information for his arrest.
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