Who are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebels taking control of Aleppo?

On Wednesday, rebel forces launched their biggest offensive against the Syrian government in years.

On Saturday they took control “large parts” of the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo.

This surprise offensive led to the first Russian attacks on Aleppo since 2016, resulting in the Syrian army withdrawing its troops from the city.

The attack was led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has a long and involved history in the Syrian conflict.

HTS was created under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusrain 2011 as a direct affiliate of al-Qaeda.

ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadihe also participated in its creation.

It was considered one of the most effective and deadly groups fighting against President Assad.

However, jihadist ideology seemed to be its driving force rather than revolutionary fervor – and at the time it was seen as at odds with the main rebel coalition under the banner of Free Syria.

However, in 2016, the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, publicly broke ranks with al-Qaeda, disbanded Jabhat al-Nusra and founded a new organizationwhich a year later took the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, after merging with several other similar groups.

For the past four years, it seemed as if the war in Syria was over.

President Bashar al-Assad’s rule is largely unchallenged in the country’s major cities, while some other parts of Syria remain outside his direct control.

These include Kurdish-majority areas in the east that have been more or less separated from Syrian state control since the early years of the conflict.

In the south, where the revolution against Assad’s rule began in 2011, some, although relatively subdued, unrest persists.

In the vast Syrian desert, rebels from a group calling itself Islamic State continue to pose a security threat, especially during the truffle hunting season, when people flock to the area in search of this highly profitable delicacy.

In the northwest, Idlib province is occupied by jihadist and rebel groups that arrived there at the height of the war.

The dominant force in Idlib is the one that launched the surprise attack on Aleppo, HTS.

For several years, Idlib remained a battleground as Syrian government forces tried to regain control.

But Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement in 2020which has long been a key ally of Assad, and which rebel-backing Türkiye has largely maintained.

About four million people live there – most of them displaced from cities that Assad’s forces retook from rebels in a brutal war of attrition.

Aleppo was one of the bloodiest battlefields and marked one of the rebels’ greatest defeats.

To achieve victory, Assad relied on Russian air power and Iranian military assistance on the ground – mainly through Iranian-sponsored militias.

These include Hezbollah.

There is no doubt that Hezbollah has failed recently Israel offensive in Lebanonas well as Israeli attacks on Iranian military commanders in Syria, played a significant role in the decision of jihadist and rebel groups in Idlib to make a sudden, unexpected move into Aleppo.

For some time, HTS has had its power base in Idlib, where it is the de facto local administration, although its efforts to gain legitimacy have been undermined by alleged human rights violations.

It was also involved in fierce internal conflicts with other groups.

His ambitions beyond Idlib have become unclear.

Since breaking away from al-Qaeda, its goal has been limited to trying to establish fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria, rather than a broader caliphate, as ISIS has tried and failed.

It has shown no signs of trying to reignite the Syrian conflict on a larger scale and challenge Assad’s rule over much of the country again – until now.

Additional reporting by Mai Davies.