Just a few years ago, he emerged from the shadows as a terrorist in a camouflage uniform: a turban and a $10 million US bounty on his head.
Today, Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has taken off his turban, swapped his soldier’s suit for a stylish jacket and appears to be the leader-in-waiting in Damascus, declaring: “The future is ours.”
However, the $10 million reward remains on his head as a “designated global terrorist specialist”, and his suddenly victorious Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is still outlawed in Britain.
Regardless of having such powerful enemies, no one can ignore the fact that while the world’s attention was elsewhere, al-Jolani has dramatically led the final overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite his alliances with Russia and Iran. .
And on his path to victory he has done everything possible to leave behind his and HTS’s origins in Osama bin Laden’s infamous Al Qaeda. It now claims to be a moderate force seeking power for the good of all Syrians, not just its radical Islamists.
Al-Jolani, 42, is a Syrian citizen born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2003, after the conquest of Iraq by the Western allies, he had joined the extremists fighting to oust the American occupiers.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani arrives inside the iconic Umayyad Mosque in the Syrian capital to address a crowd gathered there on December 8.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani addresses a crowd at the capital’s iconic Umayyad Mosque.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (center), before his speech at the capital’s emblematic Umayyad Mosque.
He became a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the notorious Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who later led the even more extremist Islamic State of Iraq and ultimately the Islamic State in Syria before his suicide by suicide vest in 2019.
Al-Jolani, who expressed admiration for the Al Qaeda suicide bombers who killed thousands of people in the 2001 attack on New York’s Twin Towers, was detained by US forces during fighting in Iraq but was released.
And in 2011, when the Arab Spring sparked a long-suppressed uprising in Syria, al-Baghdadi sent al-Jolani back to his homeland.
With al-Baghdadi still loyal to Al Qaeda at the time, al-Jolani was tasked with establishing a local Syrian group for the battle against Assad, called the Nusra Front.
It soon became a major force among several rebel groups in Syria, attracting even a rare white British convert as a volunteer, Lucas Kinney, from Surrey. He became a social media star for the terrorist group and is 35 years old if still alive, although he was last heard from five years ago.
Meanwhile, Al-Jolani found himself at odds with his terror kingpin guru.
A supporter kisses the forehead of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, upon his arrival inside the emblematic Umayyad Mosque in the Syrian capital.
People in Damascus tear down a statue of Hafez al-Assad and wave a Druze flag as rebel forces approach the capital, December 7.
Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, gave a speech as the crowd chanted “Allahu akbar (God is greater)
Bashar al-Assad (L) with his wife Asma al-Assad arrive at the international airport in New Delhi, India, June 17, 2008
Assad’s office said today that the president would stay in the capital and continue his duties after his children and British-born wife fled to Russia last week (pictured together in 2021).
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (center), hugs his followers before his speech at the capital’s emblematic Umayyad Mosque.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (not pictured) is filmed by his supporters at the capital’s iconic Umayyad Mosque.
Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has taken off his turban, swapped his soldier’s suit for a smart jacket and appears to be the leader-in-waiting in Damascus, declaring: “The future is ours.”
Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, gave a speech as the crowd chanted “Allahu akbar (God is greater)
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Syrian Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
As the Syrian civil war escalated in 2013, al-Baghdadi ordered him to dissolve the Nusra Front and formally merge it with other al-Qaeda-inspired fighters, to form the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS.
Al-Jolani refused, pledging his continued loyalty to Al Qaeda, and soon his Nusra Front warriors were fighting ISIS as well as Assad.
As his Sunni Muslim group rose to prominence, he conducted his first interview in 2014, his face masked, as he announced that his goals were the imposition of Islamic law, with no room for Shia Muslims, much less Christian minorities.
A couple of years later, he appeared, dressed in military green and a turban, saying he was cutting ties with Al Qaeda and changing the name of his group.
In 2017, the renamed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which means Syrian Liberation Organization, had a firm grip on power in Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
Needless to say, there have been no free elections in Idlib under his government. Residents have complained of rampant corruption, theft of state resources and detention without trial of suspected agents of Russia and Hezbollah.
Syrian National Army soldiers celebrate in the city after opposition forces led by HTS (Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham) took control of Hama city center and surrounding villages on December 6.
Anti-government fighters patrol the streets of Hama after capturing the central Syrian city, December 6.
An aerial image shows a car passing by Syrian army military equipment and vehicles that were abandoned on the road to Damascus, near the city of Suran, on December 3, 2024.
A truck drags the head of another toppled statue of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad through the streets of the city of Hama on December 6.
However, several years ago al-Jolani began to speak, surprisingly, of religious tolerance, and even hinted at a belief in democracy, visiting the families of Kurds after their relatives were killed by Turkish-backed militias.
And in 2021 he conducted his first television interview with an American journalist, dressed in a jacket and with his hair combed back.
Speaking quietly, he insisted: “Yes, we have criticized Western policies, but waging a war against the United States or Europe from Syria, that is not true.” We didn’t say we wanted to fight.
On the brink of power last week, al-Jolani said in an interview with US CNN: “Syria deserves a system of government that is institutional, not one in which a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.”
It remains to be seen whether a man so immersed in the most feared terrorist groups of the 21st century will be able to resist his core beliefs.