Who is Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, the prominent Syrian rebel leader?
Al-Golani's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is considered a terrorist organization by U.S., Canada
Militant leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani was hailed by supporters on Sunday at a prominent Damascus mosque, around the time that Bashar al-Assad was on a plane to Russia, ousted after nearly a quarter-century as Syria's president.
Al-Golani and his insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now stand to be a major player in how Syria will be governed after 50 years of Assad family rule. That's a worrisome development to many Western governments, given his past statements and actions spanning at least a decade as a fighter steeped in battles in Syria and Iraq, including past affiliations with al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The 42-year-old Sunni leader, whose real name is Ahmed Al-Sharaa, kept his face covered during his first major interview in 2015 and said his goal was to see Syria ruled under Islamic law, potentially putting Syria's mix of Alawite, Shia, Druze and Christian citizens at risk.
In that Al-Jazeera interview, he sought to reassure Syrians and the international community, but managed to include an aside that Alawites, who supported Assad, "are considered to be heretics" in Islam.
Groups that Al-Golani has led or alliance members have been accused of kidnappings of Kurdish civilians in Syria as well as nuns, earning ransoms to return the latter group.
"Golani is certainly not a democrat, let's be very up front about that," Robert Ford, U.S. ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014, told CBC News on Monday.
"What makes me nervous is that he will try to rule without bringing other people in — and he will not have majority support — and therefore we just get back into the Libya scenario … where different factions immediately start fighting each other."
Both the United States and Canada have designated HTS a terrorist organization. Public Safety Canada noted that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), which in 2017 merged under HTS, has claimed responsibility for hundreds of attacks, including "ambushes, kidnappings, assassinations, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks and suicide bombings."
'Concerning ideological views'
For years, Al-Golani worked to consolidate power while bottled up in the province of Idlib in Syria's northwest corner, as Assad's Iranian- and Russian-backed rule over much of the country appeared solid. Al-Golani manoeuvred among extremist organizations while eliminating competitors and former allies.
He sought to polish the image of his de facto "salvation government" that has been running Idlib to win over international governments and reassure Syria's religious and ethnic minorities. Along the way, he shed his garb as a hard-line Islamist guerrilla and put on suits for press interviews, talking of building state institutions and decentralizing power to reflect Syria's diversity.
"Even though [Al-Golani] has spoken about reconciliation, not using retribution, the group itself still harbours a lot of concerning ideological views," said Sajjan Gohel, international security director for the think-tank Asia-Pacific Foundation.
"Even though they may have uncoupled from al-Qaeda, they haven't totally abandoned some of their doctrine — that would be a worry for minorities, for women and also for the West's interest."
Al-Golani's ties to al-Qaeda stretch back to 2003, when he joined insurgents battling U.S. troops in Iraq. The Syrian native was detained by the U.S. military but remained in Iraq.
During that time, al-Qaeda usurped like-minded groups and formed the extremist Islamic State of Iraq, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Golani's prominence grew when al-Baghdadi sent him to Syria to establish a branch of al-Qaeda called the Nusra Front.
Al-Golani ultimately defied al-Baghdadi's calls to dissolve the Nusra Front and merge it with al-Qaeda's operation in Iraq to form the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Al-Golani pledged his allegiance to al-Qaeda, which later disassociated itself from ISIS.
Shifting alliances
The Nusra Front battled ISIS and eliminated much of its competition among the Syrian armed opposition to Assad. Al-Golani told Al-Jazeera he took orders from longtime al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, but a year later, Nusra Front cut ties with al-Qaeda.
"It uncoupled from the group, not for ideological reasons, but more for the fact it was strategic and it wanted to consolidate its position inside [Syria]," said Gohel.
In 2017, Al-Golani's alliance rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — meaning Organization for Liberating Syria — consolidating his power in northwest Syria's Idlib province. HTS took in some smaller groups of Islamist militants but clashed with others.
Al-Golani began calling for religious tolerance and pluralism. He appealed to the Druze community in Idlib, which the Nusra Front had previously targeted, and visited the families of Kurds killed by Turkish-backed militias.
The complex mix is worth remembering for what may lie ahead, said the former ambassador Ford.
"He is not the majority of the armed opposition," said Ford. "He is a faction leader, maybe of the biggest faction, but not the majority faction."
Al-Golani re-emerged as a prominent figure just two weeks ago. The Syrian conflict had been largely dormant for a few years, but rebels launched an attack on Aleppo. The retreat of government forces followed, with similar scenes then playing out in Hama, Homs and the capital, Damascus.
"Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, not one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions," Al-Golani said in an interview with CNN last week, offering the possibility HTS would eventually be dissolved after Assad's fall.
"Don't judge by words, but by actions."
With files from CBC News