Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: The Evolution of a Syrian War Leader

download the article infographic

Timeline of Al Sharaa’s journey

His evolution

Ahmed al-Sharaa is better known by his kunya (nom de guerre) Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. This name comes from his native region, the Golan (or Jolan in Arabic). Following the Israeli invasion of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War, his family left the city of Fiq and moved to Saudi Arabia. Ahmed’s father, Hussein Ali al-Sharaa, a graduate in economics from Baghdad University, worked as an oil engineer in Riyadh. Ahmed was born there in 1982. He returned with his family to live in Damascus, Syria, at the age of seven.

His activism began in 2000 following the Second Intifada during which the Palestinian population rose up against Israeli occupation policies. In 2003, when the U.S. Army invaded Iraq, Ahmed al-Sharaa joined Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, which became Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2004. He was imprisoned at Camp Bucca, a massive American prison, in 2006. There, he met Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He was released in 2008 or 2009 and took the name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. He became responsible for operations of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in Nineveh.

In 2011, al-Baghdadi sent him to Syria, where he founded Jabhat al-Nosra. Two years later, the Emir of the Islamic State sought to merge al-Nosra and the Islamic State in Iraq to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but al-Jolani refused and pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri (the emir of al-Qaeda). This decision was partly motivated by al-Baghdadi’s desire to have Syrian rebel leaders assassinated. The following year, the mediator between al-Nosra and Al-Qaeda was assassinated in a suicide attack by ISIS, marking the start of an open war between al-Nosra and the Islamic State.

In 2016, he broke ties with Al-Qaeda and changed his group’s name to Fatah al-Cham Front. He aimed to integrate with the Syrian rebel groups and focus on the Syrian revolution, while improving the group’s image to shed the label of a « terrorist group ». On January 28, 2017, his group merged with five others to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He took leadership of HTS in October of that year, after the resignation of Abu Jaber. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of State offered $10 million for information leading to his capture. This reward was canceled on December 20, 2024, after his meeting with a U.S. delegation.

HTS overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime in just 12 days and took Damascus on December 8, 2024. Al-Jolani became Syria’s number one, but how have his intentions for Syria evolved and what is his current ideology?

His Intentions

Interviewed in 2014 by Al-Jazeera, he declared that Syria should be governed by their interpretation of Sharia law and that minorities such as Christians, Druze, or Alawites would not be considered. Ten years later, he gave a more diplomatic speech, stating that ethnic minorities would be protected and would have a place in society.

When questioned about the Taliban regime, he responded that it was a completely different society, with different cultures and ways of thinking, and that the Afghans are a tribal society where the tribe plays an important role in power. Regarding women’s education, he explained that his group, which has been in control of the Idlib province for the past several years, has seen women make up more than 60% of the students. On the issue of alcohol, he said that a legislative committee would be responsible for establishing a constitution and making decisions. As for the issue of the veil, he replied that there are far more important problems for Syria, such as rebuilding infrastructure, hospitals, businesses, and the return of exiles.

He stated that the development of a constitution and the organization of potential elections could take four years, and he invited all armed factions to lay down their weapons and dissolve all battalions, including his own, HTS.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who no longer wants to be called by his kunya, has attracted a lot of attention since he became the Syrian leader. Some see him as a Mossad agent who fought the Hezbollah and the Iranians while overthrowing an enemy regime of Israel. Others view him as a puppet of Erdogan, who might resolve the problem with the Kurds. Is he a jihadist leader disguised as a politician, as some believe, or an ambitious revolutionary who has repented for his past allegiances? And most importantly, is he sincere in his statements about a more democratic Syria? Only the coming months and years will tell, so it is crucial to keep a close eye on Syria.

Idlib Syria by Osama Naser