In a span of just three days, opposition forces in Syria captured the second-largest city, Aleppo, after the shocking collapse of the Syrian Arab army loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
As the world witnessed a fearsome offensive, it was Abu Mohammed al-Golani who stood at the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group that has become the most powerful armed opposition force in Syria.
Soon after the attack, various websites claimed that he was allegedly killed in a Russian airstrike, although it turned out to be fake.
He is considered to be the mastermind of the attack on Aleppo and is now seeking to consolidate his territory in captured areas.
The question that has caught the attention of the international community is who is Abu Golani? He is the founder of Hayat Al-Tahrir Sham (HTS) and has dedicated his life to the creation of an “Islamic republic in Syria,” pretty much like Iran, where all powers are concentrated in one person called "(Emir).”.
Since 2016, Golani has been positioning himself and his group as rightful and legitimate representatives of the Syrian people, following Assad’s brutal assault on the peaceful protesters in 2011.
This group established a parallel government in Idlib and offered civil services, education, healthcare, a judiciary, and infrastructure, as well as managed finances and aid distribution in 2017.
Born as Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a petroleum engineer. His family returned and settled in Damascus Syria in 1989.
In 2003, he moved to Iraq and later joined Al-Qaeda to resist the United States since 2003.
During the US operations in Iraq, he was arrested and released after five years. Angered with what Syrian forces were doing to protesters, he started establishing the Al-Qaeda branch in Syria to dethrone the minority Shia government led by President Basher Al-Assad, backed by a powerful minority Alawis Shia group.
The HTS aims to liberate Syria from Assad’s autocratic rule and also expel all “Iranian influence from the country, including its proxies like Hezbollah and the Fatemiyoun Brigade. Zainabiyoun Brigade, Quwat al-Ridha, and Baqir Brigade,” who are acting at the behest of the Iranian armed forces.
Follow us
