Illustration Jaimee Haddad.
The recapture of territories once held by the Assad regime has thrust Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into the spotlight. Born in 2011 under the patronage of the Islamic State and affiliated with al-Qaeda until 2016, the group now claims to have severed ties with its past. Yet, the world remains skeptical.How much of Abdallah Azzam's 1980s ideology—reshaping jihad into a global, obligatory struggle centered on martyrdom—still influences HTS today?Understanding the inner workings of HTS, a group with a fundamentally hybrid ideology, is no simple task. Officially established in Idlib in 2017 by former members of Jabhat al-Nusra, HTS has undergone a striking evolution in recent years. “A unique case where ideological revision did not lead to the group’s demise but rather to increased efficiency,” said Aaron Zelin, a jihadism expert and...
The recapture of territories once held by the Assad regime has thrust Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into the spotlight. Born in 2011 under the patronage of the Islamic State and affiliated with al-Qaeda until 2016, the group now claims to have severed ties with its past. Yet, the world remains skeptical.How much of Abdallah Azzam's 1980s ideology—reshaping jihad into a global, obligatory struggle centered on martyrdom—still influences HTS today?Understanding the inner workings of HTS, a group with a fundamentally hybrid ideology, is no simple task. Officially established in Idlib in 2017 by former members of Jabhat al-Nusra, HTS has undergone a striking evolution in recent years. “A unique case where ideological revision did not lead to the group’s demise but rather to increased efficiency,” said Aaron Zelin, a jihadism...