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ISIS massacres dozens of fleeing Assad troops – as EU warns there is a huge risk of Syria descending into sectarian violence while Islamist rebel leader insists West has nothing to fear
ISIS has ‘captured and killed’ dozens of al-Assad troops who were fleeing in the central province of Homs, in western Syria just north of Damascus.
It comes as the EU warned there is a huge risk of Syria descending into sectarian violence – but the Islamist rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani insisted that the West has nothing to fear.
A Syria war monitor said on Tuesday that Islamic State group jihadists killed 54 government soldiers who were fleeing as Islamist-led rebels pressed an offensive.
ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, but was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019. However its remnants still carry out deadly attacks.
Syrian rebel groups capped off their lightning offensive against government forces this weekend when they seized the capital city Damascus, thus sealing the stunning fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s longstanding regime.
The president’s last-ditch escape to Russia to avoid certain death at the hands of the rebels marked the end of some five decades of the al-Assad family’s dynastic rule – and the end of a brutal 14-year civil war.
There are hopes that al-Assad’s toppling could herald a new dawn with moves toward a peaceful, more prosperous future, but many analysts warn rival militias could become embroiled in a bitter power struggle as civilians continue to suffer.
All the while, the likes of Turkey, Russia, Israel, Iran and the US are seeking to advance and safeguard their regional interests – and all are wary of the threat of a possible ISIS resurgence amid the chaos.
Kallas also told a European Parliament committee hearing that the fall of al-Assad represented a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran.
She said: ‘For Putin and the Iranian regime, the fall of Assad is a huge blow for both.’
Syria’s new interim leader Mohammed al-Bashir announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker Prime Minister with the backing of the former rebels who toppled al-Assad three days ago.
The rebel offensive was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist group that burst out of its stronghold in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib less than two weeks ago.
HTS has its roots in the jihadist al-Qaeda, but since its founding in 2017 has tried to reposition itself as a more moderate Syrian nationalist organisation.
Its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa – better known by his nom-de-guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani (also written Jawlani or Julani) – insists that he will work to create a tolerant, civilised nation where religious and ethnic minorities can live peacefully.
Speaking to Sky News, the leader said that foreign countries have nothing to fear from Syria following the toppling of the al-Assad regime.
He said: ‘The country will be rebuilt, The fear was from the presence of the regime. The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability.
‘People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one and it’s not going to get into another one.’
Just a few years ago, he emerged from the shadows as a terrorist in camouflage fatigues – a turban and a $10m American bounty on his head.
Today, the Syrian rebel leader has removed the turban, swapped the soldier outfit for a smart blazer, and appears to be the leader-in-waiting in Damascus, declaring: ‘The future is ours’.
The $10m bounty, however, remains on his head as a ‘specialist designated global terrorist’, and his suddenly-victorious Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) are still outlawed in Britain.
Al-Jolani, 42, is a Syrian citizen who was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. By 2003 ago, in the wake of the Western Allies’ conquest of Iraq, he had joined extremists fighting to expel the American occupiers.
He became a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the notorious Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who later led the even more extreme Islamic State of Iraq, and ultimately Islamic State in Syria before his suicide vest suicide in 2019.
Al-Jolani – who expressed admiration for the Al Qaeda suicide attackers who killed thousands in the 2001 attack on New York’s Twin Towers – was detained by US forces during the fighting in Iraq, but freed.
And in 2011, as the Arab Spring sparked long suppressed uprising in Syria, al-Baghdadi dispatched al-Jolani back to his homeland.
With al-Baghdadi still loyal to Al Qaeda at this point, al-Jolani was tasked with establishing a Syrian local group for the battle against al-Assad – called the Nusra Front.
It soon became one of the leading forces among a number of rebel groups in Syria.
Yet al-Jolani began several years ago to talk, surprisingly, of religious tolerance, and even hint at a belief in democracy, visiting the families of Kurds after their relatives were killed by Turkish-supported militias.
And in 2021 he conducted his first TV interview with an American journalist, wearing a blazer, and with his hair gelled back.
Speaking softly, he insisted: ‘Yes, we have criticized Western policies – but to wage a war against the United States or Europe from Syria, that’s not true. We didn’t say we wanted to fight.’
On the brink of power last week, al-Jolani said in an interview with America’s CNN: ‘Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, not one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.’
The Sunni Islamist insurgents have also claimed they won’t impose any harsh restrictions or religious dress codes on women.
But major doubts persist over HTS’ commitment to upholding such equality – and whether the group will be willing to work with other factions as part of a coalition government, thereby loosening its grip on power.
Regional analysts and human rights activists point out that HTS imposed an authoritarian Islamist rule over its territory in Idlib and there are suspicions that the group’s jihadist origins remain.
Besides HTS, the other major player in the rebel offensive against the al-Assad regime is the Syrian National Army (SNA) or Free Syrian Army (FSA) – an umbrella group of rebel militias that have long been financed and armed by Turkey.
The rebel factions were able to fight effectively side-by-side to topple al-Assad, but now their divisions could be highlighted in the resulting power vacuum.
Analysts and observers hold out hope these factions can reach an agreement and create a stable administration, laying the foundations for re-development.
(DAILYT MAIL)