Abu Mohammed al-Julani at present heads jihadist group HTS in Syria and was beforehand affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State
CNN has sat down with Abu Mohammed al-Julani, a terrorist on the US needed record and the pinnacle of the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group – to debate, amongst different issues, his “transformation” from Al-Qaeda chief to “reasonable insurgent.”
The interview comes because the shock assault launched in Syria by HTS and others continues and has seen the insurgents take management of the cities of Aleppo and Hama.
Whereas CNN has labeled al-Julani as a “insurgent chief,” the US, Russia, Syria, Iran, the UN and a lot of the worldwide neighborhood have designated him and his group as a terrorist group. He had beforehand additionally been a pacesetter of al-Qaeda and the ISIS-affiliated Al-Nusra Entrance, all of which have been accused of a number of struggle crimes, together with massacring a whole lot of civilians and kidnappings. In 2013, the US listed al-Julani as a “specifically designated world terrorist” and later introduced a $10 million bounty on him.
Through the interview, al-Julani dismissed the label as “primarily political” and “incorrect” and urged individuals to evaluate “not by phrases however by actions.” He claimed that “everybody in life goes by way of experiences and phases” insisting that he’s now a modified man combating for what he describes because the liberation of Syria.
Based on the UN, the latest escalation in combating in Syria has already displaced some 280,000 individuals in simply over every week, warning that the quantity might quickly swell to over 1.5 million.
Beforehand, Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow has seen info suggesting that the UK, the US and Israel is perhaps implicated in supporting HTS amid its present offensive in Syria, in an effort to draw consideration away from the Gaza battle.
The chief of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, Naim Qassem, has additionally claimed that the latest aggression in Syria has been “sponsored by America and Israel,” arguing that Washington was making an attempt to “create chaos in Syria.” He vowed that his group would assist the Syrian authorities battle the HTS jihadists and referred to as on different Arab nations to help Damascus within the battle.
Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi has additionally introduced that Tehran would help the Syrian authorities in repelling the latest jihadist offensive, which he has described as an “American-Zionist” plot.
Syria has been engulfed in a protracted struggle since 2011 when varied anti-government teams sought to topple the Assad authorities. Jihadist forces, notably these receiving army help from overseas, have emerged as dominant gamers among the many opposition and have since been labeled by the US and different Western nations as “reasonable rebels.”
In 2015, Russia intervened within the hostilities on the request of Damascus and helped Assad’s forces restore management over a lot of the nation.
Nonetheless, final week, the scenario deteriorated after the HTS and its allies launched a large-scale shock assault in northwest Syria, driving again authorities forces and capturing vital chunks of territory in Aleppo and Idlib.
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