Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group previously linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and to al-Qaeda, has evolved in ways that challenge accepted views of “jihadism.” Now ruling over territory in Syria’s northern Idlib and western Aleppo governorates, it functions more like a government than a nonstate actor, and HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani is seeking the group’s removal from the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. But HTS is hardly anodyne. The group still espouses extremist beliefs that glamorize terrorism abroad, and its fighters fire rockets into civilian areas controlled by the Assad regime. Moreover, HTS hosts other designated groups in its territory, including Jamaat Ansar al-Islam, Katibat Imam al-Bukhari, and Katibat al-Tawhid wal Jihad.
In this thought-provoking Policy Focus, illustrated with photographs of HTS personalities and personnel, jihadism expert Aaron Y. Zelin digs deep into the group’s past before reckoning with the implications of Jawlani’s request. Whatever the U.S. decision, he suggests, political jihadism is here to stay.
February 3, 2025: Interview of Syrian President Ahmad al-Shar’a with Syria TV that will be broadcast this evening at eight o’clock Damascus time
The Syrian President leaves Riyadh, and the Emir of the region is at the forefront of those who bid him farewell
February 2, 2025: The Syrian President visits the headquarters of the Saudi Data and AI Authority and learns about the latest developments achieved by the Kingdom in the field of data and artificial intelligence
February 2, 2025: The arrival of President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Ahmad al-Shar’a, and his accompanying delegation to al-Yamamah Palace in the capital, Riyadh, to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Arrival of President Ahmad al-Shar’a and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to the Saudi capital Riyadh
President Ahmad al-Shar’a and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani are heading today on their first official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
January 30, 2025: President of the Syrian Arab Republic Mr. “Ahmad Al-Shara” receives the Emir of the State of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh “Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani” and his accompanying delegation at Damascus International Airport in the presence of Prime Minister Mr. “Mohammad Al-Bashir”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Mr. “Asaad Al-Shaibani”, Minister of Defense Major General Engineer “Marhaf Abu Qasra” and a number of officials
January 29, 2025: From the conference announcing the victory of the Syrian revolution
Congratulations from the leadership of the Free Syrian Army to Commander Ahmad al-Shar’a on the occasion of the victory of the Syrian revolution
January 28, 2025: Visit of the Russian Federation delegation headed by Mikhail Bogdanov, Special Envoy for the Middle East, to the new Syrian administration in Damascus
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad al-Shaibani, with the Palestinian delegation headed by Dr. Muhammad Mustafa, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine
January 27, 2025: A women’s delegation from the Syrian community in America meets with the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr. Asaad al-Shaibani
January 26, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad Al-Shar’a, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad Al-Shaibani, and the head of the General Intelligence Service, Mr. Anas Khattab, with a delegation from the Republic of Turkey headed by Mr. Ibrahim Kalin, the head of the Turkish Intelligence Service.
January 25, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad Al-Sheibani, with the delegation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, headed by Mr. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
January 24, 2025: The leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad Al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad Al-Shaibani, receive a high-level delegation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia headed by Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud
January 23, 2025: Meeting of the head of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the head of the General Intelligence Service, Mr. Anas Khattab, with a delegation from the Republic of Belarus headed by Mr. Rzhinkov Maxim Vladimirovich, the Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs
January 19, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad Al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad al-Shaibani, with the UN envoy to Syria, Mr. Geir Pedersen
The leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, meets with Mrs. Debra Tice, the mother of the American journalist Austin Tice, who was disappeared by the former regime
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad al-Shaibani, with a delegation from the Kingdom of Norway headed by Mr. Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway
January 18, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Asaad Al-Shaibani, with the delegation of the League of Arab States, headed by Mr. Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States
January 17, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and Mr. Asaad al-Sheibani, the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, with a delegation from the International Criminal Court headed by Mr. Karim Ahmad Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmed al-Shar’a, with the delegation of the European Union Commission headed by Ms. Hajja Lahbib, Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management
The head of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the head of the Syrian intelligence service, Mr. Anas Khattab, receive a high-level Qatari delegation headed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar
Ahmad al-Shar’a, Leader of the New Syrian Administration, receives a delegation from the Kingdom of Spain headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Alvarez Bueno, in Damascus
January 15, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, with a delegation of Syrian writers and poets in the capital, Damascus
Congratulations from the sheikhs and scholars of Aleppo to the leader Ahmed al-Shar’a on the occasion of the victory of the Syrian revolution
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, with a delegation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights headed by Mr. Volker Turk
January 14, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, with the Syrian businessman, Wafiq Reda Saeed, at the People’s Palace in Damascus
January 13, 2025: Blessing of the dignitaries of Idlib city to the leader Ahmad al-Shar’a on the occasion of the victory of the Syrian revolution
January 11, 2025: Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, with the Syrian businessman, Mr. Walid Al-Zoubi, in the capital, Damascus
The leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr. Asaad al-Shaibani, receive a high-level Lebanese delegation at the People’s Palace, headed by Mr. Najib Mikati, the Lebanese Prime Minister
The leader of the new Syrian administration, Mr. Ahmad Al-Shar’a, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr. Asaad al-Shaibani, received an Omani delegation headed by the Special Envoy of the Sultan of Oman, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Hinai, in the capital, Damascus
January 10, 2025: A delegation from the Syrian community in America meets with the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asaad al-Sheibani
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, with Dr. Faisal Al-Qassem at the People’s Palace in Damascus
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, with a number of Syrian businessmen in the capital, Damascus
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Sharaa, with Sheikh Osama Al-Rifai and his accompanying delegation
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, with a number of Syrian industrialists at the People’s Palace in Damascus
Meeting of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Sheibani, with a delegation from the Italian Republic headed by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani
January 8, 2025: From the funeral prayers for Sheikh Saria al-Rifai
The leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asaad al-Shaibani, receive a delegation from the Kingdom of Bahrain, headed by Dr. Abdullatif al-Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the People’s Palace
January 7, 2025: The leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Shar’a, on an inspection visit to Damascus International Airport on the first day of its opening
Meet our brother Sayfullah Jab’ar Al Turki who emigrated from Turkey to carry out Jihad in the cause of Allah in Syria. I don’t know too much about him but I will narrate what I saw and heard from Sayfullah within the time that I had spent with him. Before coming to Syria , he had told me about the Jahil life he lived before he got guidance from Allah SWT. He used to be involved in gang fights and other evil things while chasing the Dunya. Alhamduli’Llah he started practising the Deen and mended his ways.
Sayfullah started to realise the commandment of his Deen which he had to fulfil which is Jihad and to come to the defence of his brothers and sisters in Syria. I got the opportunity to meet Sayfullah when he joined my brigade within JFS, upon meeting him I recognised he had an injury to his head with some part of his skull missing, later he told me he sustained the injury in a previous battle he participated in.
After getting to know Sayfullah I found him to be someone determined to participate in battle even so in the Inghimashi role (front line stormers). When he was not taking part in battles I would find him occupying himself in the remembrance of Allah and increasing his knowledge by reading books. One thing that amazed me of Sayfullah was his long night prayers he would engage in every night, he would also advise other Mujahideen to engage in this worship and would say to them that: “this is your key to steadfastness on the battlefield.”
Just after Russia intervened in the Syria conflict, the Shia mercenaries also began a large scaled offensive from South Aleppo in an attempt to reach Kafarya & Fua, our unit was sent back to repel the attacks and launch counter attacks to regain the areas which we had lost. It was in the upcoming battles that Sayfullah would be martyred. The first counter attack we launched was a success and gained a few areas with few casualties Alhamdulilah, Sayfullah was not pleased as he was not chosen for the Inghimashi role he very much desired as he was put in a secondary position.
But he remained patient as he knew there would be an upcoming battle shortly within a few days. Preparations were made and everyone knew what role they would take up for this battle. Sayfullah was infuriated as he again found out that he would not be filling the Inghimashi spot once again, this time he couldn’t hold his anger and decided he would approach the commander to either place him in the role or quit and leave the brigade.
Sayfullah approached me to be the mediator between the two, reason was he only spoke Turkish and English and our commander spoke Arabic only. Our commander told me the reason for Sayfullah not being selected for the Inghimashi role. It was that he knew little Arabic and this could effect the squad in battle, it was hard for me to keep Sayfullah calm even though I advised him many times to remain patient and that he would get the opportunity soon. But his determination to be picked was not going to stop him as he told me to translate to the commander that if he wasn’t selected for this battle he would pack his bags and leave.
Seeing his persistence and courage the commander chose to switch him to the Inghimashi role. Sayfullah was delighted and now became impatient for the battle to begin. Me and Sayfullah shared the same room in our base and would spend time together as his poor Arabic and serious attitude character would keep him away from socializing with others. Every night before sleep we would engage in discussion and I once posed a question to him: “what is the thing you desire most in this world?”, he replied to live the rest of his life in Jihad and to go from one battle to the other and finally be martyred in the cause of Allah.
As a few days remained for the upcoming battle during the night Sayfullah and I would speak about the hereafter to raise each others Emaan, unlike other brothers he wouldn’t talk about Jannah or the Hoor Al Ayn but rather he would fear the hell fire and would just yearn to have himself saved from it. Moving on to the battle ,Alhamdulilah, it went well as we captured all the areas we were assigned to capture except one village. The Shia allegedly had an ambush set-up there as one of the commanders was observing things.
We decided to hold the lines we had captured and make Ribaat (Guarding a station). This Ribaat was going to be demanding as enemy artillery were raining down upon us and our positions had no defences. It was on the third day Sayfullah received his martyrdom (May Allah accept him), it happened when the Shia mercenaries made an advancement in an attempt to recapture the areas we gained, as they had advanced from two axes they laid a siege on the brothers. The brave Mujahideen fought to their last breaths and refused to surrender.
Sayfullah was hit by a sniper as so was the case with a few other brothers, injured brothers managed to sneak out crawling while escaping enemy fire, the bodies of the martyrs were left behind as it was impossible to retrieve them. Alhamdulilah, no one was captured alive. Even though we suffered some casualties, this was insignificant compared to what the Shia mercenaries suffered in the previous days and battles. We ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to accept Sayfullah Jab’ar Al Turki and all the other brothers who fell as martyrs alongside him and to grant quick recovery to the injured ones Amongst them. Ameen.
