Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's Dark History

 The normalization of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has begun in the Western media following the fall of Assad. Westerners are entirely unaware of the history of the Syrian conflict and for this reason are easily manipulated on the subject. HTS is the rebrand attempt of the official Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate. 

HTS started out as Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda. Led by Muhammed Jolani, JaN rebranded itself once in 2016 with Ayman Zawahiri's blessing to "Jaish Fateh al-Sham." This was an attempt to gain more Western support, which initially worked. CNN especially did quite a whitewash job for JFS, but this ended in failure and the group rebranded again to the current "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" we know today about a year later in 2017. 

The group has been known to use child soldiers and suicide bombers frequently throughout its history. It has also cooperated with other extremists groups. These include:

ISIS (2013)

Jund al-Aqsa (until 2019)

Ansar al-Islam

Turkistan Islamic party (until the present day)

Jabhat al-Nusra made no attempt to hide its extremism. Here it cooperates with other extremists to take Idlib city in 2015. Idlib would be the cancerous mass that spread in 2024 that would see Assad ousted.

Metis ATGM being fired by JaN featured in its al-Manara al-Bayda media.

Jund al-Aqsa taking part with a US-made TOW and a VBIED (suicide bomber.)

Jabhat al-Nusra VBIED (suicide bomber) during the battle south of Idlib city after the city was captured. 

Jabhat al-Nusra using a VBIED on Aleppo just before the group rebranded in 2016.

Jaish Fateh al-Sham was the first rebrand attempt, but nothing actually changed within the group. The leaders and the group's tactics remained the same. Its cooperation with other extremist groups also continued.

The battle in 2016 to break the Syrian army's siege of Eastern Aleppo. Multiple extremist groups cooperated, including JFS.

JFS.

Turkistan Islamic party in the battle to break the siege of East Aleppo as well.

JFS VBIED on Aleppo in 2016.

The final rebrand to Hayat Tahrir al-sham took place in 2017 after the "Jaish Fateh al-Sham" project failed. At this point in the war, HTS would be on the backfoot, with the exception of a few short lived offensives around Idlib and Hama. That is until late November of 2024 with the captured of Aleppo city and subsequent collapse of the Syrian state.

HTS continued the use of suicide bombers in 2019 and 2020 offensive campaigns.

HTS and the radical Turkistan Islamic party cooperated closely during the fall of Syria. 

TIP at the Aleppo citadel after the city fell.

An offshoot Turkistani group during the offensive with obviously questionable ideology. Katibat al-Ghuraba al-Turkistan.

TIP enters Damascus. December 8th, 2024.

Muhammed Jolani, the leader of HTS/JFS/JaN since the beginning of the war in Damascus, ostensibly the new "president" of Syria.

After the history of this group in Syria, which I have shortened quite a bit for a wide audience, they cannot be normalized. It is clear now that Assad was a bad man. That does not mean we should support anything Jolani or his group does.