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Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who led a lightning offensive for Syria has a long history of extremism despite a recent appeal for moderate policies.
“Golani is a specially designated global terrorist,” Bill Roggio, editor-in-chief of the Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. “He was a member of Al Qaeda … the US keeps him on the list for a reason.”
Roggio’s comments come after Islamist rebels led by Golani’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) organization led an offensive across Syria that led to the capture and overthrow of the country’s capital, Damascus. of Bashar Assad’s regime, who fled the country. Saturday in the country as the rebels closed in on the city.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad flees into exile as Islamic rebels conquer the country
Abu Mohammed al-Golani inspects damage after an earthquake in the village of Besnaya in rebel-held northwestern Syria’s Idlib province on the border with Turkey on February 7, 2023. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
Golani was first drawn to jihadist thought after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, according to a Guardian report.
He left Syria and joined Al Qaeda in Iraqonly to return to his home country in 2011 during a revolt against the Assad regime, eventually joining Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Al Qaeda side in 2013.
Golani would cut ties with Al Qaeda in 2016 and led a merger between HTS and other Islamist groups in northwestern Syria in 2017, which brought him control of territory that had fallen to the government during the country’s long civil war.
The US State Department designated Geolani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2013, citing his leadership in multiple terrorist attacks across Syria that often targeted civilians.
Fighters enter the Rashidin district outside Aleppo on November 29, 2024. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP via Getty Images)
But the terrorist leader has tried to strike a more moderate tone in recent years, a trend that continued as the rebels began their general offensive in Syria.
“No one has the right to wipe out another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to wipe them out,” Golani said of Syria’s religious minority groups in an interview with CNN on Friday .
But Roggio said there is little evidence that the moderate tone will continue when the rebels take over Syria, arguing that Geloni is playing a good political game.
“He plays the moderate game very well, but he’s a global jihadist. He’s an expert manipulator,” Roggio said.
Rebels in northwestern Syria capture military vehicles belonging to the regime along the route to Kweris airport, east of Aleppo, on December 2, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)
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While Roggio acknowledged that there is legitimate justification for Syrians to applaud the fall of Assad, concern now turns to what comes next for the long-suffering population.
“It’s understandable that many Syrians are ecstatic about the fall of the Assad regime, he was a monster,” Roggio said. “But I think they’re going to find that whatever replaces it isn’t going to be much better.”
