Who is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of Syrian rebel group that overthrew Assad?

On Sunday (December 8), more than 13 years after the civil war began in Syria, rebel forces of an Islamist alliance stunned the world by taking Damascus by force and overthrowing the Bashar al-Assad regime in the process.

The rebellion that ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria was led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.

Jolani, whose real name is Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was essentially Syria's branch of the dreaded Al-Qaeda.

Victory speech

Hours after capturing Damascus, Jolani gave a victory speech in the city’s symbolic Umayyad Mosque.

“We (the Syrian people), are the rightful owners of this country. We have been fighting, and today we have been rewarded with this victory,” he addressed the crowd gathered at the mosque.

“The (al-Assad) regime imprisoned thousands of its own civilians unjustly and without them committing any crimes. How many people were displaced across the world? How many people lived in tents? How many drowned in the seas?” Jolani asked.

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“A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory. God will not fail you. This victory is for all Syrians, they were all part of this victory,” he said.

Jolani also told them that it would take hard work to build a new Syria that would be a beacon for the Islamic nations.

Who is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani?

Born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jolani was raised in Mazzeh, an upscale district of Damascus. According to the Middle East Eye news website, it was after the September 11, 2001 attacks that Jolani was first drawn to jihadist thinking.

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"It was as a result of this admiration for the 9/11 attackers that the first signs of jihadism began to surface in Jolani's life, as he began attending secretive sermons and panel discussions in marginalised suburbs of Damascus," the website said.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq, he left Syria to take part in the fight against the Americans. He joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and was subsequently detained for five years by the Americans, preventing him from rising through the ranks of the jihadist organisation.

Return to Syria, founding of HTS

In March 2011, when the revolt against Assad's rule erupted in Syria, he returned home and founded the Jabhat Al-Nusra, Syria's branch of the Al-Qaeda.

However, in 2016, his group separated from the Al-Qaeda because his objective was to focus on Syria rather than get involved in international terrorist acts. He called his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

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HTS soon became the dominant rebel group in the Idlib province of Syria. The group governed the province through the Syrian Salvation government and provided public services, though it faced criticism for its authoritarian approach.

Image makeover

Jolani displayed a pragmatic side by being willing to form an alliance with other local and international groups to counter Iranian influence in Syria and to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. His strategy of making his group Syria-focussed, collaborating with other like-minded outfits, and even transforming his public image from that of a jihadist to a revolutionary by changing his attire ultimately bore fruit.

Jolani stopped wearing a turban and was seen in a khaki shirt and trousers while visiting Aleppo's citadel, standing at the door of his white vehicle as he waved and moved through the crowds. This seemed a far cry from his earlier reclusive persona and seemed to be an attempt to appear as more practical and adaptable, said news reports.

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Since breaking ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016, Jolani has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader. But he is yet to quell suspicions among analysts and Western governments about HTS not being a terrorist organisation.

New relationship with the West

When he was interviewed in 2021 by Martin Smith, a correspondent with Frontline, Jolani told him that he was seeking a new relationship with the West. He said his fight was with Assad and not with the US.

He said he focused on military targets in Syria, not civilians.

“We are confronting an unjust, tyrannical regime that is killing people. We are defending the people,” Jolani told Smith.

He said there were almost half a million students enrolled in schools in the Idlib province which his group governed, and that there were fully-functioning hospitals.

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“I don’t claim that the situation in Idlib is ideal. But I’m saying that given the current circumstances, there’s a self-asserting model that is capable of running the whole area’s affairs according to Islamic rule,” he said.

Finding an ally in US

Jolani claimed that there was common ground between the US and his group in fighting against Assad, his Russian and Iranian allies, and ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

The Frontline journalist also interviewed several critics and victims of Jolani’s group who said they had committed human rights violations, torture, and arbitrary arrests of civilians.

However, some US experts and veteran diplomats in the region gave credit to Jolani for establishing a semblance of stability in Idlib province. They claimed that Jolani was the “least bad option of the various options in Syria”, which is one of the most important places in the Middle East at the moment.

Syria and the world will soon discover what Abu Mohammad al-Jolani has planned for the war-ravaged country, and whether he will give its long-suffering citizens freedom, peace, stability, and prosperity.