Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: 10 Things You Need to Know About the Syrian Rebel Leader
From dating an Alawite to massacring innocents to having a rebrand, meet the man behind the fall of the Assad regime.
History was made in Syria this past weekend, as the government was finally toppled by rebel forces in a stunning takeover of Damascus, leading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia and end his family’s 54-years of authoritarian reign.
On Monday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — the extremist group that led much of the Syrian rebel forces into Damascus — announced that one of their key officials, Mohammed al-Bashir, will be serving as acting prime minister for Syria’s transitional government. But in spite of that rather grand announcement, all eyes remain on the man who will really be running the show: Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of HTS.
Just hours after rebels captured Damascus, Jolani delivered a speech in which he declared victory for the “entire Islamic nation” and “a new chapter in the history of the region."
Jolani is now of course everywhere in the news, and is even being presented as a reformist by some in the Western media, despite him and his group’s previous ties to al-Qaeda and ISIS.
But who is he really? What’s his background? And how did he end up as the new man in charge of Syria? Here are 10 things you need to know about Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.