BEIRUT (Reuters) -Because the commander of al Qaeda’s franchise within the Syrian civil conflict, Abu Mohammed al-Golani was a shadowy determine who stored out of the general public eye, even when his group grew to become probably the most highly effective faction combating President Bashar al-Assad.
At this time, he’s probably the most recognisable of Syria’s triumphant insurgents, having regularly stepped into the limelight since severing ties to al Qaeda in 2016, rebranding his group and rising because the de facto ruler of rebel-held northwestern Syria.
The transformation has been showcased since rebels led by Golani’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), previously often known as the Nusra Entrance, swept by way of the nation and declared they’d ousted Assad on Sunday after seizing the capital Damascus.
Golani has featured prominently within the takeover, sending messages aimed toward reassuring Syrian minorities who’ve lengthy feared the jihadists.
“The future is ours,” he mentioned in a press release learn on Syria’s state TV, urging his fighters to not hurt those that drop arms.
When rebels entered Aleppo, pre-war Syria’s largest metropolis, initially of their sweep to Damascus, a video confirmed Golani in navy fatigues issuing orders by telephone, reminding fighters to guard the folks and forbidding them from coming into houses.
He visited Aleppo’s citadel accompanied by a fighter waving a Syrian revolution flag: as soon as shunned by Nusra as an emblem of apostasy however just lately embraced by Golani in a nod to Syria’s extra mainstream opposition.
“Golani has been smarter than Assad. He’s retooled, he’s refashioned, made new allies, and come out with his charm offensive” in the direction of minorities, mentioned Joshua Landis, a Syria knowledgeable and head of the Middle for Center East Research on the College of Oklahoma.
PR EFFORT?
Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century Worldwide, mentioned Golani and HTS had clearly modified although nonetheless remaining “pretty hardline”.
“It’s PR, but the fact they are engaging in this effort at all shows they are no longer as rigid as they once were. Old-school al Qaeda or the Islamic State would never have done that,” he mentioned.
Golani and the Nusra Entrance emerged as probably the most highly effective of the multitude of insurgent factions that sprang up within the early days of the insurgency in opposition to Assad over a decade in the past.
Earlier than founding the Nusra Entrance, Golani had fought for al Qaeda in Iraq, the place he spent 5 years in a U.S. jail. He returned to Syria as soon as the rebellion started, despatched by the chief of the Islamic State group in Iraq on the time – Abu Omar al-Baghdadi – to construct up al Qaeda’s presence.
The U.S. designated Golani a terrorist in 2013, saying that al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia legislation in Syria, and that Nusra had carried out suicide assaults that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian imaginative and prescient.
Turkey, the Syrian opposition’s important international backer, has designated HTS a terrorist group, whereas supporting a few of the different factions that struggle within the northwest.
Golani gave his first media interview in 2013, his face wrapped in a darkish scarf and displaying solely his again to the digital camera. Talking to Al Jazeera, he referred to as for Syria to be run in line with sharia legislation.
Some eight years later, he sat down for an interview with the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service’s FRONTLINE programme, going through the digital camera and carrying a shirt and jacket.
Golani mentioned the terrorist designation was unfair and that he opposed the killing of harmless folks.
He detailed how the Nusra Entrance had expanded from the six males who accompanied him from Iraq to five,000 inside a 12 months.
However he mentioned that his group had by no means introduced a risk to the West. “I repeat – our involvement with al Qaeda has ended, and even when we were with al Qaeda we were against carrying out operations outside of Syria, and it’s completely against our policy to carry out external action.”
MESSAGES TO MINORITIES
Golani fought a bloody conflict in opposition to his previous ally Baghdadi after Islamic State sought to unilaterally subsume the Nusra Entrance in 2013. Regardless of its al Qaeda ties, Nusra was thought to be extra tolerant and fewer heavy handed in dealings with civilians and different insurgent teams in comparison with Islamic State.
Islamic State was subsequently crushed out of territory it held in each Syria and Iraq by an array of adversaries together with a U.S.-led navy alliance.
As Islamic State was collapsing, Golani was cementing the grip of HTS within the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, establishing a civil administration referred to as the Salvation Authorities.
Assad’s authorities considered HTS as terrorists, together with the remainder of the rebels.
With the Sunni Muslim rebels now in management, the HTS administration has issued statements searching for to guarantee the Shi’ite Alawites and different Syrian minorities. One assertion urged the Alawites to be part of a future Syria that “does not recognise sectarianism”.
In a message to residents of a Christian city south of Aleppo, Golani mentioned they’d be protected and their property safeguarded, urging them to stay of their houses and to reject the Syrian authorities’s “psychological warfare”.
“He’s really important. The main rebel leader in Syria, the most powerful Islamist,” mentioned Lund.
He mentioned HTS had displayed “logistical and governance capacity” by ruling its personal territory in Idlib for years.
“They’ve adopted the symbols of the broader Syrian rebellion… which they now use and attempt to declare the revolutionary legacy – that ‘we’re a part of the motion of 2011, the individuals who rose up in opposition to Assad, and we’re additionally Islamists’.”
