Uzay Bulut
Gatestone Institute, Dec. 16, 2024
“Opposition groups leverage their Turkish financing and military support to wage campaigns of religious and ethnic cleansing in Afrin.”
The Assad family’s rule of Syria, which lasted more than 50 years, collapsed on December 8. Jihadist forces took control of Damascus after President Bashar al-Assad escaped to a luxurious life in Moscow. Today, roughly half a million Christians and 2.5 million Kurds in Syria face a future of persecution and abuse at the hands of jihadist terrorists.
The offensive launched by the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, began on November 27. These terrorists, backed by Turkey, first captured Aleppo and a string of other towns and cities in a matter of days, before converging on Damascus.
Since 2017, HTS has been the dominant Islamist militia in Syria. A former branch of Al Qaeda, in 2018, HTS was officially designated a terrorist organization by the US government. The group’s name, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, means “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant,” meaning much of the Middle East, including Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. Since 2019, HTS, working with Turkey, has controlled northern Idlib through the so-called “Syrian Salvation Government” (SSG). Now, as Turkey and the HTS plan to “reshape Syria,” both Kurds and Christians find themselves under siege.
HTS, which cooperates with the Turkish military and Turkish-backed groups in Syria, is committed to establishing an Islamist state across Syria, at least for a start. The founder and current leader of HTS is Ahmed Hussein Al-Shara, better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, Before founding HTS, Jolani led Jabhat Al-Nusra, a Syrian al Qaeda affiliate.
In a 2019 report on terrorism by the US State Department, HTS/Al-Nusrah Front is described as one of “the world’s most active and dangerous terrorist groups”. SOURCE