Abu Mohammad al-Julani
" “Terrorist”" Ahmed al-Sharaa    ( Asset) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa 1982 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
Syrian rebel leader of militant group HTS | |
Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, known by his nom de guerre as Abu Mohammad al-Julani (also al-Jolani and al-Golani), is a Syrian militant leader and commander-in-chief of the militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which took control of Syria on 8 December 2024 when President Bashar al-Assad fled the country and was given asylum in Russia.[1]
On 1 December 2024, al-Jolani was reported to have died in a Russian airstrike, hours after his men stormed into Aleppo killing a number of Syrian Army troops fighting for President Assad.[2] A few days later al-Jolani was interviewed on CNN as his HTS rebels took over the city of Hama.[3] Al Jolani then set his sights on Homs, the next city south on the highway to the Syrian capital of Damascus.[4]
Contents
Background
Ahmed al-Sharaa was born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian family from the Golan Heights. His family returned to Syria in 1989, settling near Damascus. Little is known of al-Sharaa's time in Damascus before his move in 2003 to Iraq, where he joined al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) as part of the resistance to the United States invasion that same year.[5]
al-Qaeda in Iraq
AQI at that time was led by al-Zarqawi and claimed responsibility for a high number of violent acts:
including deadly car bombings, suicide attacks, sniper attacks, roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs), hostage taking, executions and beheadings [the beheading of David Berg reached a wider western audience, while the terror against the civilian population went was a side-note in the commercially-controlled media [6]]. Around 2004, there were near daily car bombings in Iraq, causing untold civilian deaths. The death toll was so concerning to al-Qaeda leadership at the time, that they sent a letter to al-Zarqawi urging him to stop killing innocent people. Al-Zarqawi rejected the advice.[7]
In one instance 17 severed heads were found in fruit boxes.[8] AQI was one of the groups that summarily executed (often by beheading) captured Iraqi police and army personnel.[9] After an imam in central Iraq, criticized al-Qaeda in his Friday sermon, in February 2006 a truck bomb exploded there and killed over fifty Iraqis.[10] Other groups condemned the strategy of killing large numbers of Shiites and destroying Shiite religious sites to incite sectarian violence;[11] some would start to target AQI and take out their leaders.[12]
Arrest
He was arrested by US forces in Iraq in 2006, some sources say 2005,[13] in Mosul [7] and held for five years at Camp Bucca[The prison years would have been a possible place for CIA recruitment], where he enhanced his jihadist affiliations and later on was introduced to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He was later tasked with establishing al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, Al Nusra Front, which grew its influence in opposition-held areas, especially Idlib. Al Jolani coordinated in those early years with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda’s “Islamic State in Iraq”, which later became ISIL (ISIS).
In April 2013, al-Baghdadi suddenly announced that his group was cutting ties with al-Qaeda and would expand into Syria, effectively swallowing Al Nusra Front into a new group called ISIL.[14] During this time, al-Jolani served as the emir of the now-defunct Al-Nusra Front.[15]
$10 million bounty
The US State Department listed al-Jolani as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" in May 2013, and four years later (May 2017) announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.[16][17][18] The bounty was ended in December 2024.[19]
Threatening Russia
The nisba "al-Golani" in his nom de guerre is a reference to Syria's Golan Heights, partially occupied and annexed by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Al Jolani released an audio statement on 28 September 2014, in which he depicted Russia as being “Eastern Crusaders,” called for reprisal attacks inside Russia, and stated he would fight the "United States and its allies" and urged his fighters not to accept help from the West in their battle against ISIL.[20]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:The End of Pluralism in the Middle East | blog post | 6 December 2024 | Craig Murray | "It is the United States which is promoting the cause of religious extremism and of the end, all over the Middle East, of a societal pluralism similar to Western norms. That is of course a direct consequence of the United States being allied to both the two religio-supremacist centres of Israel and Saudi Arabia." |
References
- ↑ "Syrian rebels topple Assad who flees to Russia in Mideast shakeup"
- ↑ "Did Russia kill the leader of the Islamist group HTS hours after his men stormed Syria's Aleppo?"
- ↑ "CNN's softball interview with AlQaeda leader Al Jolani that they want to be the president of Syria"
- ↑ "Syrian rebels capture second major city as army withdraws from Hama"
- ↑ "Syria’s new leader has two identities – but which one will take the country forward?"
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jama%27at_al-Tawhid_wal-Jihad&oldid=1264966600#Activities
- ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna13195017
- ↑ https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/iraq1005/13.htm
- ↑ https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/al-qaeda-iraq-resurging-or-splintering
- ↑ https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/1.
- ↑ https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/zarqawi.htm
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ahmed-al-Sharaa
- ↑ "Who is Abu Mohammed al-Julani, leader of HTS in Syria?"
- ↑ "Al-Nusra leader Jolani announces split from al-Qaeda"
- ↑ "U.S. offers $10M reward for information on al-Nusra leader"
- ↑ https://rewardsforjustice.net/rewards/muhammad-al-jawlani/
- ↑ https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/press-releases/up-to-10-million-reward-offered-for-information-on-the-leader-of-the-al-nusrah-front
- ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07gv3j818ko
- ↑ "Head of al Qaeda’s Syrian branch threatens Russia in audio message"
