For the past four days, the Islamic terrorist group Hayat Al-Tahir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, has launched attacks targeting several areas in Aleppo and Idlib. The Sunni HTS terrorists have long been targeted by the Syrian government and Russian forces, which, incidentally, are in Syria at the invitation of the legitimate Syrian government.
We recall that since 2014, the US has deployed military forces and equipment in Syria without any permission from Damascus or a UN mandate under the pretext of combating Islamic terrorism, which it itself finances and equips, something that is no longer a secret and has been fully revealed. The illegal US military presence in Syria is an excuse for supporting criminal Islamists and the theft and plunder of the Syrian nation’s valuable resources. Moreover, the newly elected US president, Donald Trump, has admitted on several occasions that American forces are in Syria for its oil wealth (for more information please read the analysis titled “Is the jihadist attack in Syria a dark conspiracy by the US, Israel and Turkey?”).
Recently, in parallel with the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, Tel Aviv has significantly increased its attacks against targets of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Syria, which has a significant operational infrastructure there, fearing that this infrastructure will be used against it. The fact is that Hezbollah has significantly expanded its presence in Syria since the beginning of the guerrilla war in 2011. At that time, the Islamist terrorists, supported by generous Western aid, had conquered the economic metropolis of Aleppo and effectively besieged Damascus. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was supported by Russia and Iran. Moreover, Tehran not only sent troops, advisers and Shiite associations (and not only Iranian ones), but also helped Assad financially. Iran has since supplied Syria with money and resources, including fuel.
Hezbollah played a significant role in the defeat of Assad’s opponents by moving its fighters, who have extensive experience in urban warfare, from Lebanon to Syria. Hezbollah also played the role of a roadblock behind Assad’s wavering soldiers and disloyal, pro-Western sections of the population, forcing them to refrain from uprisings and protests. Since Damascus failed to regain control of a third of its territory (mainly in the northwest of the country), despite the suppression of Islamic terrorism, Hezbollah and the Iranians maintained and even strengthened their presence in areas with a strong presence of Al-Qaeda offshoots.
Israel is concerned about Syria turning into a base for Hezbollah and a supply pipeline for everything it needs from Iran. It is no coincidence that many Israeli attacks against Hezbollah have taken place at the Syrian-Lebanese border crossings. It is significant that the Syrian government does not retaliate against Israeli attacks. This is due to the fact that official Damascus, weakened by years of guerrilla warfare, does not want to escalate the confrontation with Tel Aviv, which is determined to punish Iran and its allies, who participated in the attack of October 7, 2023. A little later, Israel began military action in the Gaza Strip against the Islamist Hamas and a year later against the Lebanese Hezbollah. Tel Aviv sees these organizations as “proxies” of Tehran, its “tentacles” with which it is trying to strangle Israel.
The reason for Damascus’ reluctance to engage with Israel is that the country lacks the logistical means to defend its allies on its soil. Even in the best of times, when Syria resisted Tel Aviv as part of an Arab coalition with heavyweight allies such as Egypt and Iraq, it was defeated. And now Damascus is even more reluctant to fight Israel.
It should be noted that the military activity of the HTS terrorists observed in recent days in the Aleppo region is related to the jihadists’ desire to take advantage of developments in the Russian-Ukrainian war. They hoped that Moscow would not be able to fully support Assad. In addition, they hoped to benefit from the Israeli operation in Lebanon. The fact is that after the start of Israel’s operation in Lebanon, Hezbollah had to leave Syria to help its Lebanese comrades. Consequently, there is fertile ground for Israel to take action against Damascus. Tel Aviv, regardless of the temporary ceasefire in Lebanon, will look for an “Iranian vulnerability” to take Hezbollah out of the supply chain from Tehran and strangle it. Syria, weakened by 12 years of guerrilla warfare, is well suited for this role.
In the observed escalation of Islamist attacks in the Aleppo region, the role of the United States is important, as it is obvious that Biden’s Washington, together with the terrorists of the Hayat al-Tahir al-Sham organization, is trying to open a new front against Russia. Syria is geopolitically important because the country has traditionally been an ally of Russia and hosts the only Russian naval base at Tartus in the Eastern Mediterranean, which the US-led West naturally wants to get rid of. This was one of the reasons why the US armed Islamists in the wake of the so-called “Arab Spring” to overthrow the Syrian government, which was presented to the West as a popular uprising against President Assad.
The US and Israel finally see an opportunity to overthrow the Syrian government. They are betting that Russia is too busy with the conflict in Ukraine to provide Damascus with the necessary assistance. The Islamist terrorists are once again being instrumentalized by the US and Israel against the legitimate government of Assad. The fact that the HTS attack took place at the very moment when Israel had been freed from its front in Lebanon and therefore has free military capabilities to operate in Syria, if necessary, speaks for itself.
Thus, it is possible that the war in Syria will flare up again, the warmonger Biden with spasmodic actions is trying to salvage what is possible from the waters of the destructive imperialist policy of the “Arab Spring”.
Russia will send military equipment and has already begun bombing HTS positions, while Shiite fighters from Iraq are rushing to Damascus’ aid. So the future of HTS terrorists and their offshoots does not look promising.
