Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been and remains the dominant insurgent faction in northwest Syria (Idlib and its environs) and has extended its influence into parts of north Aleppo countryside that are controlled by factions of the Turkish-backed ‘Syrian National Army’ (SNA). However, the group has experienced some internal tensions and splits at the top leadership level in recent months. Although these internal problems are interesting, they are unlikely to lead to any major internal fragmentation in the group, and if anything, they reflect the firm grip that the HTS’s overall leader Abu Muhammad al-Jowlani has over the organisation. In turn, the internal tensions are ultimately unimportant in terms of the general status quo in Syria of a frozen conflict.
The most recent split to befall HTS is the case of Abu Ahmad Zakur (real name most commonly given as Jihad ‘Isa al-Shaykh), who was sanctioned in May 2023 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in coordination with the Turkish authorities. In the designation (where his name was given as ‘Omar Alsheak’), Zakur was described as being part of HTS’s Shura Council (‘the consultation council’- essentially the group’s most senior leadership body), involved in HTS’s financial wing (specifically the “economic portfolio abroad”) and occupying the position of head of the group’s public relations office. In another release by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Jihad ‘Isa al-Shaykh was given as one of Zakur’s names.
This month, Zakur formally announced his departure from HTS (and likewise the organisation issued a document announcing his removal). Zakur had fled from HTS’s direct areas of control in Idlib and its environs and come to the Azaz area of north Aleppo countryside, part of the SNA’s areas of control. Zakur released audio recordings in which he made accusations against HTS and its leader Jowlani. Specifically, as summarised by pro-opposition newspaper Enab Baladi:
(i) Zakur accuses two leading members of what was then Jabhat Fatah al-Sham of involvement in an August 2016 bombing on the Turkey-Syria border that killed dozens of members of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ and civilians. This bombing was supposedly carried out with the knowledge of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham’s leader Jowlani.
For context, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was a rebranded version of al-Qa‘ida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and was the main predecessor group behind HTS, which, with its formation in January 2017, constituted a full break with al-Qa‘ida. It should also be noted that this August 2016 bombing was claimed by the Islamic State, and there is no reason to think that the Islamic State was not responsible for it.
(ii) Accusing Jowlani of responsibility for car bombings that targeted Harakat Nur al-Din al-Zinki, which broke off from HTS and was eventually dismantled by HTS in its main strongholds in west Aleppo countryside.
(iii) Claiming that HTS has contracted secret allegiances from leaders of the Shami Front (part of the SNA’s ‘Third Corps’) and the more recently constituted Tajammu‘ Shaba’ (formed in February 2023) that uses the SNA brand but is suspected of being close to HTS.
(iv) Claiming that Jowlani opened HTS prisons to British and American intelligence, and that Jowlani is proud of his supposed relationship with the United States.
For its part, HTS unsuccessfully tried to arrest Zakur in the Azaz area, and ‘Abd al-Rahim ‘Atun, a leading figure in HTS, has issued his own clarification about the split between HTS and Zakur. ‘Atun notes that Zakur had been a veteran of Jabhat al-Nusra and subsequently left the group and came to join HTS. He partly confirms the American description of Zakur’s role in HTS, highlighting how Zakur had specifically been entrusted with managing relations between HTS and the SNA-controlled areas in north Aleppo countryside, a matter on which Zakur was assisted by the Iraqi-born Abu Mariya al-Qahtani, who was a leading figure in HTS and defender of its project.