The Islamic terrorists who have toppled Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad didn’t just crawl out from under the usual rocks.
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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) exploded into the news as they raced across Syria in just days in a seemingly suicidal quest to oust the dictator.
And now, the country’s bloodthirsty leader has fled to Moscow and into the warm arms of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But what is HTS? This isn’t their first terror rodeo and the globe is watching the group’s next move in what is expected to be a re-run of the mad mullahs of Iran.
Founded in 2012, it was formerly named Jabhat al-Nusra before switching to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Its members are drawn from the Sunni arm of Islam.
The Grand Poohbah is a former top al-Qaida operative named Abu Mohammedal Jolani. Like HTS itself (and terrorists in general), he has a bit of a public relations problem. Not that that seems to matter to Western undergrads.
Jolani joined the insurgency against the allies led by Racy photos of Bashar Assad discovered after his fall spark ridicule in neighbouring Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
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Following the revolt against Assad in 2011, the leader returned to the country that year. By the next year, he established Jabhat al-Nusra — otherwise known as the Nusra Front, its midwife being the ISIS death cult.
But the Islamic State saw the Syrian operation as subordinate to the mother ship of mayhem. And that put some terror noses out of joint.
As Assad ruthlessly cracked down on pro-democracy protests, a litany of terror groups emerged. Islamic State and al Qaida battled for homicidal hearts and minds.
HTS opted for al Qaida who were behind the terror attacks on 9/11, killing 3,000 people. Sources said the group provided with HTS with fighters, guns and cash. Then, HTS ditched al Qaida in 2017.
Like the older, more established terror organization, HTS has a dark history of sex trafficking and abuse involving young women and girls. Some of the terrified girls have been given as “gifts” to HTS big wigs.
One young woman told Al-Monitor her uncle sold her to the terrorists for $5,000. The girl was taken to a bordello owned by the terrorists and repeatedly raped.
Now 19, she said: “I told my uncle about what I was going through in this house, but he did nothing to save me.”
The group’s human rights abuses stretch further than women and girls. HTS has committed numerous massacres, bombings, kidnappings and a staggering array of twisted torture.
Even the soft-on-terror United Nations has described the group as “brutal.”
Now, HTS is trying to soften its image.
Before taking power, they stated that Syrian Kurds have “full right to live in dignity and freedom” and would “not allow anyone to disrupt or attempt to undermine the brotherhood and cooperation between all parts of Syrian society.”
In addition, since 2017 HTS has slackened on imposing Sharia law but still enforces gender segregation in schools and universities. Nor do they force women to cover their faces.
However, they don’t like TikTok and other social media. They have detained some users who posted what is considered to be “immoral” content.
@HunterTOSun