IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – A video clip circulated by activists on social media on Saturday shows members of the Public Security Service of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) in one of the main squares in the city of Sarmada, north of Idlib, saying, “We are coming, Damascus, we are coming, Aleppo.”
This came after HTS graduated dozens of groups from military and Sharia courses, some of which were attended by the leader of the organization, Abu Muhammad al-Julani.
“Our goal is not to pave a road or open a road, but rather our eyes are on Aleppo and Damascus and the liberation of all of Syria,” al-Julani said in January in a speech during the opening of the Aleppo-Bab al-Hawa road that connects the cities of Dana and Sarmada.
However, his statements aroused the ridicule of the residents at that time, as they believed that, instead of liberating Damascus, al-Julani had first to return thousands of civilians to their villages and towns, which government forces controlled without fighting or battles at the end of 2019, especially in the northern Hama and southern Idlib countryside.
“The priorities of HTS are not to confront the regime, but to work to open new fronts and restore the areas it lost,” al-Julani said in July.
Tahrir al-Sham, which first appeared in Syria at the end of 2012, controls the Idlib region and parts of the countryside of Aleppo, after expelling other Turkish-backed opposition factions.
Reporting by Baha’ al-Noubani
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