After attracting little understand for years, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani spearheaded a surprising lightning offensive that ended in the autumn of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria after over 13 years of brutal civil warfare.Mr. al-Jolani, 42, is the chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist team as soon as connected to Al Qaeda that has managed maximum of Idlib Province, in northwestern Syria, for years right through a protracted stalemate within the war.“By means of a ways, he’s a very powerful participant at the floor in Syria,” mentioned Jerome Drevon, a senior analyst of jihad and fashionable war on the Global Disaster Team, who has met Mr. al-Jolani a number of occasions previously 5 years.In overdue November, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham introduced essentially the most vital problem to Mr. al-Assad’s rule in a decade, sweeping thru Aleppo, Syria’s greatest town, sooner than charging south, shooting territory throughout a number of provinces with out going through a lot resistance.By means of Sunday, rebels have been celebrating in Syria’s capital, Damascus, and declared it freed from Mr. al-Assad. Syria’s longtime chief had left the rustic after keeping talks with “a number of events of the armed war,” consistent with Russia’s International Ministry. It didn’t say the place Mr. al-Assad could be.Born Ahmed Hussein al-Shara in Saudi Arabia, Mr. al-Jolani is the kid of Syrian exiles, consistent with Arab media experiences. Within the overdue Eighties, his circle of relatives moved again to Syria, and in 2003, he went to neighboring Iraq to sign up for Al Qaeda and struggle the U.S. career.Thanks to your persistence whilst we examine get entry to. If you’re in Reader mode please go out and log into your Occasions account, or subscribe for all of The Occasions.Thanks to your persistence whilst we examine get entry to.Already a subscriber? Log in.Need all of The Occasions? Subscribe.