The Operations Room of Independent Battalions: Interview

As part of its consolidation of authority and power in northwest Syria (the region of Idlib and its environs), Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has sought to make the “al-Fath al-Mubin Operations Room” (which it leads) the sole avenue by which factions can combine efforts and resources and undertake military operations. The notable exceptions appear to be some smaller jihadist groups (e.g. Ansar al-Tawheed, Ansar al-Islam and others) that are given approval by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to operate in a completely independent capacity: that is, without forming separate operations rooms. These smaller factions are thus effectively allowed to engage in frontline manning and their own tit-for-tat skirmishes with the Syrian government and its allies without bringing about a collapse of the broader ceasefire arrangement that was negotiated between Turkey and Russia and has been in place since spring 2020.