Who is HTS, the Salafi-jihadist group that captured Aleppo?

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the primary group behind the current blitzkrieg offensive against the Assad regime that started on Wednesday, which led to the capture of around two-thirds of Aleppo and a total breakdown of the Syrian front lines.

HTS is the result of several reorganizations in Syrian jihadist groups in 2017. Many of HTS's commanders and intellectuals come from the Al Nusrah Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.

The group was originally formed by Hashem "Abu Jaber" al-Sheikh, who had been a long-time Salafist opponent of the regime, having been arrested and imprisoned as early as 2005. Sheikh was freed from prison in 2011 during the opening moves of the Syrian Civil War.

Sheikh's view of Islam seems to have become HTS's primary outlook, with schools in territory held by the group teaching his Salafi interpretations of Islam.

However, Sheikh's Salfism claims to be distinct from the Salfism promoted by other Salafi groups; in particular, it is said to promote equality between the four traditional schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhab). This is, in part, an alleged attempt to allow HTS to become more accepted by a variety of Muslim communities, allowing it to ingratiate itself with the locals, according to a 2021 paper from the European University Institute.

Despite this, HTS uses the Shafi school as their primary source of Sharia law, which is the standard in Syria, as opposed to the Hanbali, which Salafist groups normally use.

Who is al-Julani?

Despite his strong influence on the group, Sheikh was emir for about six months until current leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani replaced him as emir; Sheikh then became head of HTS's Shura Council. The US has put a ten-million-dollar bounty on Julani for information leading to his capture.

Julani has led the group since 2017, functioning as its political and military leader.

Julani has been markedly different than many other leaders of Jihadist groups; in particular, he has tried to persuade Western observers that he and his organization are not a threat to the West.

During a 2021 interview with PBS, Julani emphasized that despite previous comments, he was not looking to turn Syria into a launching point for attacks on the West, saying, "Yes, we did criticize some Western policies in the region, but to wage a war against the United States and the Europeans from Syria, that’s not true."

In the same interview, he defended his choice to join Al Qaeda as defensive but simultaneously tried to distance himself from ISIS.

He claimed that his organization was not looking to kill innocent people like ISIS, and this was why he distanced himself from them. He also later said that the decision to disaffiliate from Al Qaeda was final and that he and HTS did not support "external attacks" on European or American people.

Julani also defended his use of suicide bombers against the regime, saying, "If we had planes, we would have used planes. If we had artillery to replace martyrdom, we would have saved those brothers and used those weapons."

He also claimed that his organization did not target civilians with suicide bombings, saying they only targeted military targets.

Views on minorities

Julani alleged that he has a dislike for sectarian attacks and highlighted his attempt at forming a "broad" governing body in Idlib province, which the group controlled.

He said that Sharia law was extremely clear that Muslims must respect Christian minority groups and provide freedom of worship.

Reports from 2022 discuss Julani's attempts to build broader support from non-Muslims in Syria. In one instance, Julani allegedly helped inaugurate water infrastructure projects in Druze villages in the south of Idlib province, according to Al-Monitor. During the same trip, he condemned the massacre of 20 Druze that occurred in 2015.

Agenzia Fides, Vatican State media, announced that HTS was permitting Christians in Idlib to celebrate mass for the first time in ten years in 2022, with the decision being directly attributed to Julani. He also reportedly promised to return all property that was seized from the Christian community.

HTS troops also began issuing statements calling for unity between the different religious communities of Idlib.

HTS has just released a statement previously issued to Aleppo, now translated to Eng, so the target is the international audience.Assures civilians of all sects to remain calm, declares humane treatment to surrendering combatants and advises all fighters to remain disciplined. pic.twitter.com/MxcKZl94Nr

— Paweł Wójcik (@SaladinAlDronni) November 29, 2024

During the offensive into Aleppo, Julani issued statements in which he called on his troops to respect Aleppo's place in history as "a crossroads of civilizations and cultures, with a long history of cultural and religious diversity."