Enab Baladi – Hassan Ibrahim

After years of adopting the titles of brother, sheikh, and leader of the liberated areas, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani settled on his real name “Commander Ahmed al-Sharaa” following the operation “Deterrence of Aggression” launched by his faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alongside opposition factions against the regime forces.

This battle, which brought the factions to Damascus and led to Bashar al-Assad’s escape, carried new changes to the name and personality of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was described by the German newspaper Bild as “the man who makes al-Assad tremble.”

Al-Jolani has long been known for changes that made him a unique case in the world of Jihad from which he originated, transforming over the years from being invisible to public view, from wearing a turban to foregoing it, from military attire to civilian clothing, and from a hardline discourse to moderation.

The man who began his journey in the world of “Islamist organizations and Jihad” has now arrived in Damascus on the ruins of Bashar al-Assad’s remnants, to take the lead, giving a victory speech from within the Umayyad Mosque in the capital on December 8.

The dissident leader from Tahrir al-Sham, Jihad Issa al-Sheikh (Abu Ahmad Zakour), previously spoke to Enab Baladi about al-Jolani’s uniqueness in establishing the HTS’ strategies and changing its discourse and communications with external parties, describing al-Jolani as “the sole leader.”

Who is Ahmed al-Sharaa?

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) hails from the Golan Heights in western Syria, but he was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1982 and returned to Syria at the beginning of 1989.

He grew up and lived in the Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus in the Eastern Villas area, where his Islamic inclinations were almost nonexistent. He was influenced by the Palestinian intifada in 1999 and 2000, and someone advised him to go to the mosque and pray there and to adhere to praying in the mosque, according to what al-Jolani stated in an interview.

Beginnings with al-Qaeda

He went to Iraq after the American invasion in 2003 and rose through the ranks of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and it is said that he became a close aide to its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

He was arrested by the American military and held at Camp Bucca, and after his release in 2008, he collaborated with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then-leader of the Islamic State of Iraq (before his death), and was appointed head of the Pakistani intelligence apparatus in Ninewa province.

Al-Jolani returned to Syria in 2011 and founded al-Nusra Front as a subsidiary group of the Islamic State.

In 2013, he refused instructions from al-Baghdadi to dissolve al-Nusra as an independent group and merge it into the Islamic State, pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda and its leader at the time, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The United States placed him on its list of terrorists in May 2013 as a “specially designated global terrorist.”

Separation from al-Qaeda

In 2016, al-Jolani announced that al-Nusra had changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and severed ties with al-Qaeda.

This severance of ties was not acceptable to the international community, and in May 2017, the FBI offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to his identification or location.

In early 2017, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham announced the formation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a coalition between it and other jihadist groups such as Jabhat Ansar al-Din, Army of Sunnah, Liwa al-Haq, and Nur al-Din al-Zenki Movement, and later included more factions and groups.

In October 2017, the resignation of Hashim al-Shaykh (Abu Jaber) from his position as the commander of the HTS was accepted, and al-Jolani was tasked with managing the affairs of the faction.

Dismantling jihadist movements

With any targeting of jihadist organizations in Idlib by the International Coalition, fingers are pointed at al-Jolani, especially since he is wanted.

Tahrir al-Sham is accused of being behind these operations and providing intelligence to the International Coalition to eliminate jihadists, despite the HTS’ denial of having a systematic policy towards foreign migrants (fighters) in general.

In February 2022, it was notable that Tahrir al-Sham delayed its response to a US air operation in northern Idlib that targeted the leader of the Islamic State, Abdullah Qardash, known as “Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi,” along with at least 13 people, including six children and four women.

After four days, the HTS stated that it condemned and denounced the killing of civilians and denied any prior knowledge of the operation before it occurred.

On August 3, 2023, the Islamic State accused Tahrir al-Sham of killing the leader of the organization “Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi,” stating that the HTS handed “Abu al-Hussein” over to the Turkish government “as a token of loyalty and allegiance” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to provide him with an achievement in his election campaign.

Age plays a role

In recent days, circulars have been issued carrying “reassurance” messages for both the domestic and international fronts, reflecting a change in the behavior of the HTS, especially with its statements directed at minorities and sects, along with instructions not to harm or violate for ethnic or sectarian reasons.

The tone was completely different from what al-Jolani stated in 2015, when he emphasized the protection of Druze and Christian villages in the countryside of Idlib, sending Islamist preachers to their villages to clarify their mistakes, as he expressed, and he believed that Christians would submit to Islamic rule if an Islamic system were established in Syria, pledging to protect them.

This December, in an interview with CNN, al-Jolani attributed the changes he underwent over the years, from al-Qaeda organization to attempts at moderation, to the factor of age.

He stated that “a person in their twenties will have a different character than a person in their thirties or forties, and certainly a person in their fifties; this is human nature.”