Source: Financial Times [UK]
“The Syrian rebel groups that ousted Bashar al-Assad are to disband their military wings and form an army, the head of the most powerful faction said, as the new rulers seek to consolidate control over the country. Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said the fighters would join an army that falls under the Ministry of Defence. ‘We have to adopt a state mentality, not an opposition mentality,’ Jolani, who recently began going by his birth name Ahmed al-Sharea, said. … The disbanding is a strategic move designed in part to ease restrictions on HTS, an Islamist group once affiliated with al-Qaeda and which remains on US and EU terror lists.” (12/17/24)