Syria War Live: Opposition Entering Damascus After Capturing Homs; Who is Abu Mohammed al-Julani, leader of HTS in Syria?
Syria War Live: Opposition Entering Damascus After Capturing Homs; Who is Abu Mohammed al-Julani, leader of HTS in Syria?
Syrian rebels say they freed detainees at infamous Sednaya Prison
The Syrian armed opposition says its fighters have freed all the prisoners at the Sednaya Prison near Damascus, where rights groups say government forces have imposed horrific abuse on detainees.
“We announce the end of the era of tyranny at Sednaya Prison,” the armed opposition said in a statement.
Who is Abu Mohammed al-Julani, leader of HTS in Syria?
- He was born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a petroleum engineer. The family returned to Syria in 1989, settling near Damascus.
- In 2003, he moved to Iraq and joined al-Qaeda there as part of the resistance to the US’s invasion of the country.
- US forces arrested him in 2006 and held him for five years.
- After his release, he was tasked with establishing al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which grew its influence in opposition-held areas, especially Idlib. In those early years, al-Julani coordinated with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of al-Qaeda’s “Islamic State in Iraq”, which later became ISIL (ISIS).
- In 2013, al-Baghdad announced his group was cutting ties with al-Qaeda, but al-Julani rejected the change.
- In 2016, as Aleppo fell to al-Assad’s forces and armed groups there headed to Idlib, al-Julani announced that his group had changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
- In 2017, al-Julani announced that his group was merging with a number of other armed groups that had fled into Idblib to form the HTS.
- HTS’s stated is to liberate Syria from Assad’s government, “expelling Iranian militias” from the country and establishing a state according to their own interpretation of “Islamic law”, according to Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, DC.
Abu Mohammed al-Julani [File: Handout/US State Department]
Syrian opposition says its forces are entering Damascus
The Administration of Military Affairs, which speaks for the armed opposition says in a brief statement: “Our forces have started entering the capital Damascus.”
UN ‘carefully monitoring fast-moving situation in Syria’
UN relief chief Tom Fletcher said the UN is monitoring the situation “with concern”.
“All sides must ensure civilians are protected, can move freely, and access is facilitated to those in need of humanitarian support, wherever they are,” added Fletcher, in a post on X.
Fear in Aleppo, celebrations in Hama as opposition advances
Qormosh, the Syrian journalist, spoke to Al Jazeera about how civilians in Aleppo and Hama reacted after opposition forces captured the two cities last week.
“In Aleppo, I saw a little bit of fear because they are coming into a new sort of management and governance as the city has not been seized in its entirety by the opposition forces and also [because of] the propaganda launched by the Syrian regime, telling them that if you are controlled by the opposition forces, they are going to starve you, they’re going to kill you, they’re going to do this and that,” Qormosh said from Idlib.
But the conduct of the rebel troops – who were strictly told not to bother or harm civilians, and not to harm an animal or even cut a tree – the people of Aleppo have been “reassured,” he said.
“But things were different in Hama and Homs, because these two cities participated heavily in the 2011 uprising and a massive part of them was actually controlled by the opposition forces, especially the countryside,” Qormosh said.
“So the situation in Hama was special, because Hama actually suffered from the 1980 and 1982 massacre committed by Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, killing over 52,000 people. Civilians there told the opposition forces, ‘We have been waiting for you for over 50 years, but now we are free from Assad and his father and his entire family.’”
Syrian soldiers continue to pour into Iraq
Soldiers from al-Assad’s army are continuing to flee into Iraq through the al-Qaim border crossing, according to footage shared online.
One video, posted by the Anbar Media Centre, shows soldiers on tanks and military vehicles on the roads of al-Qaim. The outlet said “thousands” of troops had entered Iraq after “fleeing the battles taking place in their country”.
Another video, verified by Al Jazeera, shows Iraqis handing out food to the “exhausted” troops.
Earlier on Saturday, the mayor of al-Qaim said about 2,000 Syrian troops had crossed the border into Iraq to seek refuge.