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, they’d 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 army withdraw its troops from the 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 below a distinct identify, 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 thought to be one of the vital efficient and lethal of the teams ranged in opposition to President Assad.

However its jihadist ideology gave the impression to be its driving power somewhat than revolutionary zeal – and it was seen on the time as at odds with the primary insurgent coalition below 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 identify Hayat Tahrir al-Sham when it merged with a number of different comparable teams a yr later.

The struggle in Syria has for the previous 4 years felt as if it had 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 embrace Kurdish majority areas within the east, which have been kind of separate from Syrian state management because the 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 menace, notably through the truffle searching season when folks head to the world to search 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 top of the struggle.

The dominant power 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 stay there – most of them displaced from cities and cities that Assad’s forces gained again from rebels in a brutal struggle of attrition.

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

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

These included Hezbollah.

There may be little doubt that the setback Hezbollah has suffered lately from Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, in addition to Israeli strikes on Iranian army commanders in Syria, has performed a major half within the determination 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 turn into unclear.

Since breaking with Al Qaeda, its purpose has been restricted to attempting to ascertain fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria somewhat than a wider caliphate, as Isis tried and did not 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.

Extra reporting by Maia Davies.