Syrian rebels remove regime flag from monument
Video posted by pro-opposition media in Syria shows militants in Aleppo’s western suburbs removing the Syrian national flag from a monument.
Syrian rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, declared they had ousted President Bashar al-Assad and he had fled Damascus on Sunday.
But what is HTS, and how did it rock the long-simmering tensions in Syria? HTS is a Sunni Islamist militant and political group that traces its roots to the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
HTS is considered a terrorist organization globally, designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in May 2018. It has fractured connections to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State terror groups.
HTS’ precursor organization, Jabhat al-Nusra, was formed in Syria in 2011 as an al-Qaeda affiliate in opposition to Assad, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. However, in July 2016, Jabhat al-Nusra dissolved and formally severed its public ties with al-Qaeda, and the re-formed group eventually merged with others in the region to establish HTS in January 2017.
Today, HTS says that it is “an independent entity that follows no organization or party, al-Qaeda or others,” but doubts remain about whether there is still a link between the two groups, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Since announcing its independence from al-Qaeda, the group’s goals have been to topple Assad and expel Iran from the area in order to establish Islamic rule in Syria. HTS is Syria’s strongest rebel group and some Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule or instigate reprisals in the area.
HTS spearheaded the latest rebel offensive against the Syrian president. But the country has seen a civil war rage since 2011, growing out of Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests at the time.
More than a decade later, about half a million people have been killed, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group. Millions of Syrians have fled overseas. Key infrastructure lay in ruins.
On Sunday evening, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting.
The fall of Homs came after a new Syrian rebel offensive that started about 10 days ago. It gave insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from a coastal region that’s key to the power of Assad’s Alawite sect. The Alawites are a Muslim minority group who have ruled Syria for decades.
Contributing: Reuters; Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY
