Just a few years ago, he emerged from the shadows as a terrorist in camouflage – a turban and a US $10 million bounty on his head.
Today, Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has taken off the turban, exchanged the soldier’s outfit for a smart blazer and appears to be the court leader in Damascus, declaring: ‘The future is ours’.
However, the $10 million reward is still on his head as a ‘specialist designated global terrorist’, and his suddenly victorious Islamic militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is still banned in Britain.
Despite having such powerful enemies, no one can ignore the fact that, while the world’s attention was focused elsewhere, al-Jolani dramatically presided over the eventual overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite his alliances with Russia and Iran.
And as he approaches victory, he has done his best to put his and HTS’s roots in Osama bin Laden’s infamous Al Qaeda behind him. He now claims to be a moderate force seeking power for the good of all Syrians, not just radical Islamists.
Al-Jolani, 42, is a Syrian citizen born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2003, in the aftermath of the Western Allies’ conquest of Iraq, he had joined extremists fighting to oust the American occupiers.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani arrives at the Syrian capital’s Umayyad Mosque to address a crowd that gathered there on December 8
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani addresses a crowd at the capital’s striking Umayyad Mosque
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (C), before addressing them at the capital’s landmark Umayyad Mosque
He joined Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the infamous Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who later led the even more extreme Islamic State of Iraq, and eventually the Islamic State in Syria, before his suicide in 2019.
Al-Jolani – who expressed admiration for the Al Qaeda suicide bombers that killed thousands of people in the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001 – was detained by US forces during the fighting in Iraq but released.
And in 2011, when the Arab Spring sparked a long-suppressed uprising in Syria, al-Baghdadi sent al-Jolani back to his homeland.
Since al-Baghdadi was still loyal to Al Qaeda at the time, al-Jolani was tasked with creating a Syrian local group for the fight against Assad – called the Nusra Front.
It quickly became one of the leading forces among a number of rebel groups in Syria, even attracting a rare white British convert as a volunteer, Lucas Kinney from Surrey. He became a social media star for the terror group and is 35 if alive, although he was last heard from five years ago.
Al-Jolani, meanwhile, came into conflict with his terror kingpin guru.
A supporter kisses the forehead of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani upon his arrival at the Syrian capital’s Umayyad Mosque
People in Damascus topple a statue of Hafez al-Assad and wave a Druze flag as rebels approach the capital, on December 7
Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, gave a speech as the crowd chanted “Allahu akbar (God is the greatest).”
Bashar al-Assad (L) and his wife Asma al-Assad arrive at New Delhi International Airport, India, June 17, 2008
Assad’s office said today that the president remained in the capital and continued his duties after his children and British-born wife fled to Russia last week (pictured together in 2021).
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (C) hugs his supporters before his speech at the capital’s striking Umayyad Mosque
Supporters film Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (not pictured) at the Umayyad Mosque in the capital
Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has taken off the turban, exchanged the soldier’s outfit for a smart blazer and appears to be the court leader 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 the greatest).”
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of the Syrian Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
As the Syrian civil war intensified in 2013, al-Baghdadi ordered him to disband 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 allegiance to Al Qaeda – and soon his Nusra Front fighters were fighting both ISIS and Assad.
As his Sunni Muslim group rose to prominence, he conducted his first interview in 2014, with a masked face, as he announced his goals: imposing Islamic law, with no room for Shia Muslims, let alone Christian minorities.
A few years later, he showed his face, dressed in army green and a turban, saying he was cutting ties with Al Qaeda and changing his group’s name.
By 2017, the newly named Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – meaning Organization for the Liberation of Syria – had a firm grip on power in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.
Needless to say, there have been no free elections in Idlib under his rule. Residents have complained of rampant corruption, theft of state resources and detention without trial for suspected agents of Russia and Hezbollah.
Soldiers of the Syrian National Army 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 on December 6
An aerial photo shows a car driving past military equipment and Syrian army vehicles abandoned on the Damascus highway near the city of Suran on December 3, 2024.
A truck pulls the head of another fallen statue of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad through the streets of the city of Hama on December 6
Yet several years ago, surprisingly, al-Jolani began talking about religious tolerance, and even hinting at a belief in democracy, when he visited the families of Kurds after their relatives were killed by Turkish-backed militias.
And in 2021, he conducted his first TV interview with an American journalist, wearing a blazer and with his hair combed back.
Speaking softly, he insisted: “Yes, we have criticized Western policies, but to wage 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 the American CNN: “Syria deserves a system of governance that is institutional, and not a system in which a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.”
Whether a man so steeped in the 21st century’s most feared terror groups can stand up to his core beliefs remains to be seen.