Who are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebels seizing control of Aleppo?

Insurgent forces launched the biggest offensive in opposition to the Syrian authorities in years on Wednesday.

By Saturday, that they had taken management of “massive elements” of the nation’s second-biggest metropolis, Aleppo.

The shock offensive prompted the primary Russian strikes on Aleppo since 2016, and noticed Syria’s navy withdraw its troops from town.

The assault was led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which has a protracted and concerned historical past within the Syrian battle.

HTS was arrange beneath a special title, Jabhat al-Nusra, in 2011 as a direct affiliate of Al Qaeda.

The ISIS chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was additionally concerned in its formation.

It was considered some of the efficient and lethal of the teams ranged in opposition to President Assad.

However its jihadist ideology seemed to be its driving drive moderately than revolutionary zeal – and it was seen on the time as at odds with the principle insurgent coalition beneath the banner of Free Syria.

However in 2016, the group’s chief, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, publicly broke ranks with Al Qaeda, dissolved Jabhat al-Nusra and arrange a brand new organisation, which took the title Hayat Tahrir al-Sham when it merged with a number of different related teams a yr later.

The battle in Syria has for the previous 4 years felt as if it have been successfully over.

President Bashar al-Assad’s rule is actually uncontested within the nation’s main cities, whereas another elements of Syria stay out of his direct management.

These embody Kurdish majority areas within the east, which have been roughly separate from Syrian state management for the reason that early years of the battle.

There was some continued, although comparatively muted unrest, within the south the place the revolution in opposition to Assad’s rule started in 2011.

Within the huge Syrian desert, holdouts from the group calling themselves Islamic State nonetheless pose a safety risk, notably in the course of the truffle searching season when folks head to the world to seek out the extremely worthwhile delicacy.

And within the north-west, the province of Idlib has been held by jihadist and insurgent teams pushed there on the peak of the battle.

The dominant drive in Idlib is the one which has launched the shock assault on Aleppo, HTS.

For a number of years, Idlib remained a battleground as Syrian authorities forces tried to regain management.

However a ceasefire deal in 2020 brokered by Russia, which has lengthy been Assad’s key ally, and Turkey, which has backed the rebels, has largely held.

About 4 million folks reside there – most of them displaced from cities and cities that Assad’s forces received again from rebels in a brutal battle of attrition.

Aleppo was one of many bloodiest battlegrounds and represented one of many rebels’ largest defeats.

To attain victory, Assad relied on Russian airpower and Iranian navy assistance on the bottom – primarily by militias sponsored by Iran.

These included Hezbollah.

There’s little doubt that the setback Hezbollah has suffered lately from Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, in addition to Israeli strikes on Iranian navy commanders in Syria, has performed a big half within the choice by jihadist and insurgent teams in Idlib to make their sudden, sudden transfer on Aleppo.

For a while now, HTS has established its energy base in Idlib the place it’s the de facto native administration, though its efforts in direction of legitimacy have been tarnished by alleged human rights abuses.

It has additionally been concerned in some bitter infighting with different teams.

Its ambitions past Idlib had grow to be unclear.

Since breaking with Al Qaeda, its aim has been restricted to making an attempt to determine fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria moderately than a wider caliphate, as Isis tried and didn’t do.

It had proven little signal of making an attempt to reignite the Syrian battle on a serious scale and renew its problem to Assad’s rule over a lot of the nation – till now.

Further reporting by Maia Davies.