Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has emerged as the new face of the country after toppling Syria’s ousted president Bashar al-Assad who then fled to Russia.
Golani, who was once a jihadist figure, has lately started using his real name Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in the official communique which was issued on Thursday (Dec 05).
The step was taken to bolster the legitimacy of Golani as well as his Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
In the last few days, Golani emerged as the face of the rebel factions and announced that the Syrian capital, Damascus has been captured in a move which changed the history of the country.
However, his transformation is not a recent development but something which happened over the years. The man who once wore traditional jihadist militant attire has now added a Western-style wardrobe.
He led one of the swiftest offensive and emerged as the commander of the operations room.
Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani?
In 1982, Golani was born as Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where his father used to work as a petroleum engineer. In 1989, the family came back to Syria and settled near Damascus.
In 2003, he moved to Iraq where he joined al-Qaeda amid a resistance move against the invasion of the United States in the same year.
In 2006, Golani was arrested by US forces in Iraq and kept in prison for five years. Upon his release, he was given the task of establishing the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, known as al-Nusra Front.
The influence of the al-Nusra Front expanded in the opposition-held areas, especially Idlib.
In April 2013, the head of Al-Qaeda’s “Islamic State in Iraq” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi decided to cut ties with the terror group and expand his group in Syria which would have led to the al-Nusra Front getting swallowed into a new group called ISIL.
However, Golani refused to co-operate with Baghdadi and maintained his allegiance to Al-Qaeda.
Watch: Syria War: France’s Macron Welcomes Al-Assad’s Fall, Hails Syrians Courage
After 2014, Golani stayed away from Al-Qaeda’s project of establishing a “global caliphate” and focused on building his militant group within the borders of Syria.
In early 2017, Golani announced that he was merging with the groups of fighters who had poured into Idlib fleeing Aleppo and forming HTS.
The aim of HTS was Syria’s liberation from the autocratic government of Assad, establishing a state which has its own interpretation of “Islamic law” and “expelling Iranian militias” from the country.
Today after achieving one of its targets, the HTS leader in his victory speech said, “This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region. Today, Syria is being purified” and added that “this victory is born from the people who have languished in prison, and the mujahideen (fighters) broke their chains”.
(With inputs from agencies)
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