Al-Qaeda Captures Aleppo as the West Celebrates

 Aleppo city, at one time the most populous in Syria, has fallen to insurgent forces. These forces are majority jihadist in nature, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. These forces are simply called "the opposition" in Western media so as to confuse the reader of their ideology. 

The so called "opposition" launched a surprise offensive in late November, 2024. This came not 24 hours after the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Aleppo would fall only days later. Aleppo international airport and Kweres air base included. Nairab air base (attached to Aleppo international airport) was one of the most important air bases in Syria, being the location where the Syrian air force maintains their aircraft.

Kweres airbase had stood up to years of siege by ISIS before it was liberated by the Syrian army tiger forces in late 2015. It came as a shock when this base fell without a fight to HTS/AQ. Inside the base were mostly inoperable L-39 jets. Nairab airbase was pictured in HTS media with many relict jets left behind, but apparently all operational aircraft had been flown out before its capture.

HTS is a rebrand attempt by AQ in Syria. This is not their first attempt at this. In 2016, AQ attempted to rebrand from their original "Jabhat al-Nusra" to "Jaish Fatah al-Sham" in an attempt to gain more western support. The first rebrand attempt failed miserably, but under the name Hayat Tahrir al-sham, AQ has managed to pull the wool over the collective West, especially Western media outlets. Already the main stream media is hailing the "liberation" of Aleppo and whitewashing the extremists nature of the so called opposition. 

HTS is by far the largest "opposition group" in Syria. It is led by the same man since 2011, Mohammed Jolani. Jolani had fought in AQ in Iraq during the American invasion and had quickly risen through the ranks. He was captured by the Americans and transferred through several prisons, including Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca. He was eventually released, and at the outbreak of the unrest in Syria he was appointed leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, the offical Syrian AQ affiliate.

In the early days, ISIS was allied to Jabhat al-Nusra as well, Jolani being a key mediator with them. Politics got in the way in late 2013, when Jabhat al-Nusra and their Free Syrian Army allies broke away from ISIS after about a year of cooperation on the battlefield.

Until 2019 the "opposition" continued to include the ISIS affiliate Jund al-Aqsa in their ranks. Two FSA groups supported by the CIA in particular fought alongside them closely in Northern Hama. The FSA units Jaish al-Nasr and Jaish al-Izah used their CIA supplied BGM-71 TOW missiles to aid Jund al-Aqsa's advances during several Northern Hama offensives. These offensives always failed.

Now, Aleppo is in the hands of HTS and many foreign jihadist groups like the Turkistan Islamic party. TIP can only be compared to ISIS in its ideology. However, most westerners will never hear about them. Jolani, of HTS and many TIP fighters were pictured in central Aleppo at the citadel. This is a smack in the face to anyone who has watched this conflict for the past decade plus. 

Now that Aleppo is under extremist control, Hama is under threat again. If Hama falls it is likely that Homs will as well, leaving Damascus cut off from the coastal areas of Tartous and Latakia. It is unlikely that Damascus could fall, but the situation would then take years to reverse.  Latakia and Tartous won't fall, as they are Alawite areas that the so called opposition want to wipe out in a massive genocide. The people there would put up a stiff fight. 

As the media hails the Extremists now enforcing sharia law in Aleppo, remember where they came from. It is not a liberation and a day for democracy. It is a dark time for all of Humanity that one of the oldest cities in the world now falls into a de facto al-Qaeda caliphate.