Abu Muhammad al-Julani, once a senior figure in ISIS and al-Qaeda, has re-emerged as a central figure in Syria's ongoing conflict. After breaking ties with both terrorist organizations, Julani now leads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant group that governs parts of northern Syria. His recent entry into Aleppo following a key victory highlights his growing influence as a military leader and potential contender to replace Bashar al-Assad.
A profile article published about him on the Wall Street Journal website said that last week, the 42-year-old Julani entered Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, as the leading commander of HTS, with the backing of Turkey. His victory, perhaps temporary, in the attack on Aleppo and Idlib province seems to mark another dramatic moment in the Middle East.
The WSJ argues that the strategic importance of the fall of Aleppo is equivalent to the fall of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, to ISIS in 2014. Unlike the atrocities committed by ISIS in Iraq, Julani issued orders to his fighters to protect Christians and Shiites, and indeed, so far there have been no reports of massacres in Aleppo, and Julani's forces have allowed the Kurdish forces they captured to leave the area unharmed.
Julani is a man whom the United States still defines as a "terrorist," and if the regime of Bashar al-Assad collapses in the future, he is seen as the most potential contender for the position of governor of Syria.
Born Ahmad Hussein a-Sharaa, Julani adopted his current name as a reference to his family's roots in the Golan Heights, which were occupied by IDF forces in 1967. The Wall Street Journal reported that Julani broke with the Islamic State in 2012 and also severed ties with al-Qaeda in 2016 – and since then he has fought both of these terrorist organizations in bloody battles in Syria.
Instead of being affiliated with ISIS, Julani has transformed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into an organization that has run its own state in Syria's northern Idlib province since 2015, and a well-disciplined force focused on Syria, a fusion of Islam and nationalism in the style of the Taliban and Hamas.
Instead of the Islamic flag, Julani's fighters are fighting under the Syrian flag of the republic that existed before the 1963 Baath Party revolution, which eventually brought the Assad family to power.
The Wall Street Journal clarifies: "It is unclear to what extent Julani's change is genuine, and to what extent his ostensibly moderate face is only intended to reassure Syrian citizens and the West and make them complacent – as he continues his long journey to topple and replace the Assad regime."
Some Western experts claim that this is a show by Julani, and that he still adheres to an extremist ideology that he is currently hiding in order to achieve his main goal – the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime.