Fighters of HTS during a previous attack on the SLF in the western Aleppo countryside
Abu al-Khatab al-Shami, a military official in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), told the Iba’a news network on December 19 that more than 150 fighters from several groups have joined the ranks of the HTS in order to “unify the efforts” against any attack of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the opposition-held area in northwestern Syria.
“We call on all of our brothers in the other factions to unify, merge, reinforce our ranks and to abandon disagreements and dispersion and to join the ranks of the real Mujahedeen,” the new fighters of HTS said in an official statement.
HTS was formed by the Al-Nusra Front, the former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, and several other Turkish and US-backed groups in late 2017. Today, the radical group controls most of the Syrian governorate of Idlib and several key areas around it, like the Turkman mount in northern Lattakia, the Ghab Plains in northwestern Hama and several districts west of the city of Aleppo.
The group has been taken advantage of the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone agreement, which was reached in mid-September, to expand its influence in the opposition-held area. So far, HTS has assassinated several opposition figures, arrested hundreds of civilians who voiced their support for the reconciliation process and attacked areas held by other armed groups. All of this under the watchful eyes of Turkey.
