BASHAR al-Assad was toppled by rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – who has a £8million bounty on his head for his terror links.
The Islamist, whose real name is Ahmed Al Sharaa, once fought for al-Qaeda and ISIS and was inspired to be a jihadi by the 9/11 terror attacks.
With his group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HST) playing a pivotal role in the rapid offensive that removed Assad, Al-Jolani is in line to potentially become Syria’s future leader.
It is unclear what the political settlement in a post-Assad Syria will be as there are many competing religions and ideologies in the country.
But al-Jolani, who fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq following the US 2003 invasion, is now in the driving seat.
He was first drawn to jihadist thinking following the September 11 terror attacks in New York.
In 2006, he was imprisoned in some of the worst Iraqi prisons, joining ISIS until 2012.
By 2011, he had moved back to Syria with six men and a stipend of £40,000 to establish al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate.
In 2016, he founded HTS, also known as the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, which was later designated as a terrorist group by the US. A year after its inception, a bounty of £8 million was placed on his head.
HTS has tried to re-brand itself away from its terrorist anti-Western Jihadist roots as less extreme organisation.
For example, al-Jolani does not dress like a classic Jihadist, wearing instead plain khaki fatigues instead.
The group also rooted out al-Qaeda and ISIS operatives and cells in its territory and promoted itself to the West as a viable anti-Iran partner.
Al-Jolani emphasized to PBS in 2021 that his intentions did not involve initiating conflicts with Western countries. Instead, his group worked on establishing a semi-technocratic administration in Idlib and the region of northwest Syria under its control.
In its victory statement following Assad’s demise, it said: “The great Syrian revolution has broken decades of tyranny and oppression, giving birth to a new Syria.
“Today, it has moved from the struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria that honours the sacrifices of its people.”
It also declared a commitment to transfer power to a transitional governing body and aim “for a free, democratic, and pluralistic Syria”.
In an interview with CNN, al-Jolani said civilians had little to fear if their homes came under control of HTS.
He said: “People who fear Islamic governance either have seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it properly.”
Al-Jolani has also said Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities would be safe under HTS rule.
He said: “No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.”
In the interview, al-Jolani also outlined how HTS were able to sweep aside the regime’s army.
He said that a “unification of internal opinion” and an establishment of “institutional structures” had made the group stronger.
HTS also reformed its military and introduced unified training and strict discipline which had made the troops governable.
He said: “They stop where they should stop and withdraw where they should withdraw.
“The revolution has transitioned from chaos and randomness to a state of order in both civil and institutional matters and military operations alike.”
According reports, men have forced women and girls into sex slavery, marriages and human trafficking.
Some have even been known to be used as “gifts” to commanders in the heinous human rights abuses.
Dr Burcu Ozcelik, RUSI’s Senior Research Fellow for Middle East Security, said al-Jolani will face major challenges if he is to govern.
She said: “The opposition is not a homogenous movement, and there is a risk that internal fractures within the HTS-led umbrella movement – which may become more salient in the weeks and months to come – may lead to discord and threaten Syrian stability.
“A new transitional Syrian administration will soon need to take on the task of state-building, including the rebuilding of a national Syrian security force and a constitution-building process, as the Syrian state has been painfully hallowed out by the Assad regime.”
The transition of power to the rebels has begun with Assad’s prime minister having visited their leadership in the city.
PM Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali was headed to the rebels’ headquarters in Damascus early on Saturday to begin the transition of power to the victorious militants.
In an earlier video statement, he said: “The matter is up to any leadership chosen by the people and we are ready to cooperate and all the properties of the people and the institutions of the Syrian state must be preserved.
“I hope all Syrians think rationally about the interests of their country.”
Al-Jolani arrived in Damascus on Saturday afternoon and delivered a speech inside the Umayyad Mosque where he could be beaming at supporters.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed humiliated Assad stepped down as president, fled the country, and begged for a “peaceful transfer” of power.
A timeline of the Syrian civil war
The sudden collapse of Assad’s rule over Syria could mark the end of a nearly 14-year civil war in the country.
2011 – The first protests against Assad quickly spread across the country, and are met by security forces with a wave of arrests and shootings.
Some protesters take up guns and military units defect as the uprising becomes an armed revolt that will gain support from Western and Arab countries and Turkey.
2012 – A bombing in Damascus is the first by al Qaeda’s new Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, which gains in power and starts crushing groups with a nationalist ideology.
World powers meet in Geneva and agree on the need for a political transition, but their divisions on how to achieve it will foil years of U.N.-sponsored peace efforts.
Assad turns his air force on opposition strongholds, as rebels gain ground and the war escalates with massacres on both sides.
2013 – Lebanon’s Hezbollah helps Assad to victory at Qusayr, halting rebel momentum and showing the Iran-backed group’s growing role in the conflict.
Washington has declared chemical weapons use a red line, but a gas attack on rebel-held eastern Ghouta near Damascus kills scores of civilians without triggering a U.S. military response.
2014 – Islamic State group suddenly seizes Raqqa in the northeast and swathes more territory in Syria and Iraq.
Rebels in the Old City of Homs surrender, agreeing to move to an outer suburb – their first big defeat in a major urban area and a precursor to future “evacuation” deals.
Washington builds an anti-Islamic State coalition and starts air strikes, helping Kurdish forces turn the jihadist tide but creating friction with its ally Turkey.
2015 – With better cooperation and more arms from abroad, rebel groups gain more ground and seize northwestern Idlib, but Islamist militants are taking a bigger role.
Russia joins the war on Assad’s side with air strikes that turn the conflict against the rebels for years to come.
2016 – Alarmed by Kurdish advances on the border, Turkey launches an incursion with allied rebels, making a new zone of Turkish control.
The Syrian army and its allies defeat rebels in Aleppo, seen at the time as Assad’s biggest victory of the war.
The Nusra Front splits from al Qaeda and starts trying to present itself in a moderate light, adopting a series of new names and eventually settling on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
2017 – Israel acknowledges air strikes against Hezbollah in Syria, aiming to degrade the growing strength of Iran and its allies.
U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces defeat Islamic State in Raqqa. That offensive, and a rival one by the Syrian army, drive the jihadist group from nearly all its land.
2018 – The Syrian army recaptures eastern Ghouta, before quickly retaking the other insurgent enclaves in central Syria, and then the rebels’ southern bastion of Deraa.
2019 – Islamic State loses its last scrap of territory in Syria. The U.S. decides to keep some troops in the country to prevent attacks on its Kurdish allies.
2020 – Russia backs a government offensive that ends with a ceasefire with Turkey that freezes most front lines. Assad holds most territory and all main cities, appearing deeply entrenched. Rebels hold the northwest.
A Turkey-backed force holds a border strip. Kurdish-led forces control the northeast.
2023 – The Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 triggers fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, ultimately reducing the group’s presence in Syria and fatally undermining Assad.
2024 – Rebels launch a new assault on Aleppo. With Assad’s allies focused elsewhere his army quickly collapses. Eight days after the fall of Aleppo the rebels have taken most major cities and enter Damascus, driving Assad from power.
