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Tahrir al-Sham (full name Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham), also known as the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant or the Levant Liberation Committee, is an active Salafist jihadist militant group involved in the Syrian Civil War. They are a successor organization of Al-Nusra Front (the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda) and are also comprised of various other former jihadist organizations.
Ideology edit
Abu Jaber, one of Tahrir al-Sham's leaders, has Salafist jihadist beliefs. This has resulted in him being arrested several times by the Syrian government. He was imprisoned at the Sednaya Prison in 2005 and released among several jihadist prisoners in 2011 who would form several Salafist rebel groups during the Syrian Civil War.
Abu Jaber has also professed a belief in "Popular Jihad", a bottom-to-top approach in which jihadists would win the hearts and minds of the people, before setting out to establish jihadi governance, after receiving enough popular support, which is notably the opposite of ISIL's "elite Jihad" top-to-bottom approach.
Analysts have also argued that the group continues to maintain many of al-Nusra Front's al-Qaeda ideologies. Syrian reporter Abdullah Suleiman Ali also said that many of the former Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fighters still answered to al-Qaeda, and held an increasing amount of sway over the new group, despite its public rebranding.
The Combating Terrorism Center also reported that despite public statements by some of Tahrir al-Sham's top figures, the group was still largely the same al-Qaeda-aligned group it was, back when it was known as al-Nusra. Lebanese researcher Muhammad Alloush said that the goal of forming Tahrir al-Sham was to unite all groups with al-Qaeda's extreme ideology under one banner, and to obtain as many weapons as possible.
History edit
The group was formed on 28 January 2017 as a merger between Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front), the Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. After the announcement, additional groups and individuals joined. The merged group is currently led by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and former Ahrar al-Sham leaders, although the High Command consists of leaders from other groups. Many groups and individuals defected from Ahrar al-Sham, representing their more conservative and Salafist elements. Currently, a number of analysts and media outlets still continue to refer to this group by its previous names, which include al-Nusra Front, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and al-Qaeda in Syria,. The Ansar al-Din Front and Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement have since split off from Tahrir al-Sham. It had an estimated 20,000 members in 2019.
Despite the merger, Tahrir al-Sham has been accused of working as al-Qaeda's Syrian branch on a covert level and is considered one of its branches, and that many of the group's senior figures, particularly Abu Jaber, held similarly extreme views. However, Tahrir al-Sham has officially denied being part of al-Qaeda and said in a statement that the group is "an independent entity and not an extension of previous organizations or factions". Additionally, some factions such as Nour al-Din al-Zenki, which was part of the merger, were once supported by the US.
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham swore allegiance to the Syrian Salvation Government, which is an alternative government of the Syrian Opposition seated within Idlib Governorate. The deputy prime minister for military affairs is Riad al-Asaad, the founder of the Free Syrian Army.
Allies edit
- Turkistan Islamic Party
- Free Syrian Army (sometimes)
- Ajnad al-Kavkaz