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A major terrorist offensive has been launched at Syria’s battered northwest city of Aleppo, led by a mixture of ISIS remnants and the old al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria al-Nusra which merged with other Islamists to form a new group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
HTS has ruled a part of the Idlib province for almost 10 years with a mixture of terror, violence, and Sharia Law, where women are routinely enslaved, death by stoning is a judicial practice, and Christian minorities are forced to convert by the point of a gun.
The offensive began last week when HTS detonated two large suicide car bombs before moving into the city and surrounding area, capturing the Citadel of Aleppo, the seat of the government, on November 30th. By December 1st, most of the city, and 39 neighboring towns and villages were under the control of HTS and allies, including a Turkish-backed militia group called the SNA.
Currently, an HTS assault south of Aleppo to the major city of Hama has been stalled, with The Cradle reporting that the Syrian Arab Army, representing the national government of Bashar al-Assad, is currently fixed north of the city.
“Our forces operating in the northern countryside of Hama repelled terrorist organizations, preventing them from achieving any breakthroughs,” a Syrian military source confirmed to state media outlet, SANA.
In response, Syria’s allies in Russia have begun striking HTS positions from the air, while certain reports WaL could not verify suggest as many as 30,000 members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, the armed militia that defeated ISIS in the country, are arriving in Syria to help defeat HTS.
🇮🇶 More then 30,000 Popular Mobilization Forces from Iraq Arrive in Syria
More than 30 Thousand of Shia Popular Mobilization Forces have crossed into Syria to bolster the Syrian army in its ongoing battles in Aleppo. pic.twitter.com/w4Yi19p7Nw
— Observer Report (@Observer1514) December 2, 2024
Trump’s failures in Syria
During his first Administration, the US occupation of certain parts of Syria was not high on Donald Trump’s list of foreign policy priorities. As his first term waned, he attempted to end the US occupation from the al-Tanf Garrison and eastern oil fields, where US forces total around 900 troops, supported by an unknown number of CIA mercenaries.
However, he was impeded by members of the defense establishment led by Special Envoy for Syria James Jeffery, who provided some stunning admissions following Trump’s loss in the November 2020 elections.
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said in the interview.
“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said in 2021. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story”.
Furthermore, Jeffery considered HTS a direct asset to Washington’s foreign policy in Syria.
“They are the least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places right now in the Middle East,” he said.
Jeffrey told PBS that he was in regular contact with Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the “Emir” of Idlib’s government and HTS, during his time in the Trump Administration. Jeffrey said a typical message from al-Jolani was like this, “This is what we’re doing. These are our goals. We’re not a threat to you”.
Jeffrey said he responded to Jolani by saying, “I couldn’t agree more… Keep me informed as often as possible”.
HTS is currently on the US list of terrorist organizations, along with Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, and others, something which National Security Advisor and potentially the most powerful man in Washington regarding foreign policy, Jake Sullivan, admitted during a press conference.
He said the US has “real concerns about the designs and objectives of that organization,” but added, “at the same time, of course, we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure”.
During the Obama Administration, Operation Timber Sycamore was launched as a plan to spend tens of millions to arm and train Islamic terrorists and militias to destabilize and overthrow President Assad following the 2011 Arab Spring protests in that country, which included al-Nusra, aka al-Qaeda, aka HTS.
Trump inherited that clandestine legacy but failed to dismantle it as his instincts suggested he should. His failure extends to not allowing the state of Syria to rebuild itself and ultimately crush this ISIS-like enclave in the country’s northwest. These failures are now epitomized in HTS expanding its fundamentalist, femicidal brand of Sharia Law, at least for the moment, across all of Aleppo. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: HTS fighters capturing the town of Helfaya in Syria. PCl Warfare Analysis, via X.
