When the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized power in Syria in December, it was seen as the presumptive end of the protracted civil war in that country, since it removed President Assad from power. Since then, there seems to be quite a bit of internal conflict though, and it only seems to be growing.
Over the weekend, the HTS government carried out a raid in the city of Aleppo against a “jihadist hideout.” They reported that three ISIS member were killed in the raid, and four others were captured.
Syria’s Interior Ministry reported the raid was carried out by the General Intelligence Service. The service is run by Interior Minister Anas Khattab, a long-time HTS member and the deputy leader under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Khattab has been designated a terrorist by the United Nations since 2014.
Notably, while Khattab is a high profile member of the HTS-dominated government, there have never been any publicly available images of him released. He was repeatedly accused by rival Islamist faction Hurras al-Din of helping orchestrate US drone strikes against them. That had never been confirmed, but Khattab is known to have worked with the Turkish government for over a decade.
Khattab’s history with inter-jihad rivalries puts him in a prime position for an HTS against ISIS showdown, and it is being suggested that these raids against ISIS are part of an effort to boost HTS ties with the United States.
President Sharaa met with US President Trump on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, and Trump announced the lifting of sanctions against Syria, even though many of their top government officials, including Sharaa and Khattab, remain considered terrorists by the US State Department.
In their weekly newspaper, ISIS notably condemned Sharaa for meeting with Trump, accusing him of favoring “those whose master is Trump over those whose whose master is Muhammad.” The paper included a warning for those jihadists backing the new HTS-dominated government that they could become a card Sharaa burns for international acceptance.
In the context of the weekend raid, it’s not sure whether this is an attempt to curry favor with Trump or just an attempt to chase a rival Islamist faction out of the major city of Aleppo. Either way, it could be the prelude or another big conflict involving ISIS, leaving open the question of whether the civil war ever really ended, or if the participants simply changed.
