Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who led a lightning offensive in Syria, has a long history of extremism despite a recent call for moderate policies.
“Golani is a specially designated global terrorist,” Bill Roggio, editor-in-chief of Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. “He was a member of Al Qaeda…The United States keeps him on the list for a reason.”
Roggio’s comments come after Islamist rebels led by Golani’s organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive across Syria that resulted in the capture of the country’s capital, Damascus, and the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime, which fled the country on Saturday as rebels approached the city.
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Abu Mohammed al-Golani inspects damage after an earthquake in the village of Besnaya in Syria’s rebel-controlled Idlib province, bordering Turkey, on February 7, 2023. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
Golani was first drawn to jihadist thought after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, according to a Guardian report.
He left Syria and joined Al Qaeda in Iraq, only to return to his home country in 2011 during a revolt against the Assad regime, eventually joining Ayman al-Zawahiri’s side of Al Qaeda in 2013.
Golani would cut ties with Al Qaeda in 2016 and lead a merger between HTS and other Islamist groups in northwestern Syria in 2017, giving him control of territory that had fallen to the government during the country’s long civil war.
The US State Department designated Geolani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2013, citing his leadership in multiple terrorist attacks across Syria that often targeted civilians.
Fighters enter the Rashidin district outside Aleppo on November 29, 2024. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP via Getty Images)
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But the terrorist leader has attempted to adopt a more moderate tone in recent years, a trend that continued as rebels began their broad offensive across Syria.
“No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to erase them,” Golani said regarding Syria’s minority religious groups in an interview with CNN on Friday.
But Roggio said there is little evidence that the moderate tone will continue as rebels take control of Syria, arguing that Golani plays a good political game.
“He plays the moderate game very well, but he is a global jihadist. He is an expert in manipulation,” Roggio said.
Rebels in northwestern Syria seized military vehicles belonging to the regime along the route to Kweris airport in the eastern countryside of Aleppo on December 2, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)
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While Roggio acknowledged that there is legitimate justification for Syrians to applaud Assad’s fall, concern now turns to what comes next for the long-suffering population.
“It is understandable that many Syrians are elated by the fall of the Assad regime, it was a monster,” Roggio said. “But I think they’ll find that whatever replaces it won’t be much better.”
