Who is al-Jolani? The leader of the rebels who overthrew Assad in Syria

Fighters from anti-government forces overran Damascus, ending the rule of Bashar al-Assad. Leading the offensive was Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (who hails from the Golan Heights), who leads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group that has become the most powerful armed opposition force in Syria.

HTS founder al-Jolani has sought to distance himself from other armed forces regarding cross-border operations, focusing on establishing an "Islamic Republic" in Syria. Since 2016, he and his group have billed themselves as "trusted guardians of a Syria liberated from al-Assad."

Born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as an oil engineer, he returned to Syria in 1989, settling near Damascus. Little is known about his time in Damascus before moving to Iraq in 2003, where he joined Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Arrested in 2006 and isolated for five years, al-Jolani created al-Qaeda's Syrian offshoot, the al-Nusra Front, which increased its influence in opposition-held areas, particularly in Idlib. Al-Jolani coordinated during those years with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of al-Qaeda's "Islamic State in Iraq," which later became ISIS (ISIS).

In a 2014 television interview, he declared that Syria should be governed according to Islamic law and that the country's minorities, Christians and Alawites, would not be welcome. HTS's stated goal is to liberate Syria from Assad's autocratic rule by "driving out Iranian militias" from the country and establishing a state according to its interpretation of "Islamic law".