{"id":283792,"date":"2024-12-30T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=283792"},"modified":"2024-12-28T07:09:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T07:09:43","slug":"manufacturing-rebels-how-uk-and-usa-empowered-terrorists-of-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-hts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/manufacturing-rebels-how-uk-and-usa-empowered-terrorists-of-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-hts\/","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturing Rebels: How UK and USA Empowered Terrorists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A terrorist group in Syria.\u00a0 Photo Credit: The Cradle<\/p><\/div>\n

A deep dive into the covert support the UK and US provided to HTS exposes the calculated, secretive western strategies to support the Al-Qaeda-linked, UN-designated terror group that runs Syria today.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

26 Dec 2024 –<\/em> On 18 December, The<\/span><\/i> Telegraph\u00a0<\/span><\/i>published an\u00a0<\/span>extraordinary investigation<\/span><\/a> into how the UK and US trained and \u201cprepared\u201d fighters in the Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA), a \u201crebel\u201d force that collaborated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the mass offensive toppling of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad weeks earlier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In an unprecedented disclosure, the outlet revealed that Washington not only \u201cknew about the offensive\u201d well in advance, but also had \u201cprecise intelligence about its scale.\u201d Washington’s now-confirmed \u201ceffective alliance\u201d with HTS was described as \u201cone of many ironies\u201d emerging from the decade-and-a-half-long proxy war.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Telegraph\u00a0<\/span><\/i>suggested this collaboration was inadvertent \u2013 simply a symptom of how Syria\u2019s grinding, protracted civil war gave birth to \u201ca bewildering array of militias and alliances, most of them backed by foreign powers.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

US support of HTS: A \u2018necessary\u2019 alliance\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Alliances were fluid, with groups often splintering, merging, and shifting allegiances. Fighters frequently found themselves switching sides, blurring lines between factions. Yet, ample evidence indicates the UK and the US maintained deliberate, long-standing ties with the dominant rebels of HTS.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, in March 2021, President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s former lead Syria envoy, James Jeffrey, gave a <\/span>revealing interview<\/span><\/a> to PBS, during which he disclosed that Washington secured a specific \u201cwaiver\u201d from then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo to assist HTS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While this did not permit direct funding or arming of the UN\/US-designated terrorist organization, the waiver ensured that if US-supplied resources \u201csomehow\u201d ended up with HTS, western actors \u201c[could not] be blamed.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fungibility of weapons on the Syrian battlefield was something Washington counted on heavily. In a 2015 interview<\/a>,\u00a0CENTCOM spokesman Lieutenant Commander Kyle Raines was quizzed about why Pentagon-vetted fighters\u2019 weapons were showing up in the hands of the Nusra Front (precursor to HTS). Raines responded: \u201c<\/i>We don\u2019t \u2018command and control\u2019 these forces \u2013 we only \u2018train and enable\u2019 them. Who they say they\u2019re allying with, that\u2019s their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

This legal loophole enabled Washington to \u201cindirectly\u201d support HTS, ensuring the group did not collapse while maintaining its designation as a terrorist organization \u2013 a status complete with a <\/span>now-rescinded $10 million bounty<\/span><\/a> on leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeffrey rationalized this strategy, calling HTS \u201cthe least bad option\u201d for preserving \u201ca US-managed security system in the region,\u201d and thus worth \u201c[leaving] alone.\u201d HTS\u2019s dominance, in turn, gave Turkiye a platform to operate in Idlib. Meanwhile, HTS sent unmistakable messages to their US patrons, pleading:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be your friend. We\u2019re not terrorists. We\u2019re just fighting Assad.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Safe haven\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Since Assad\u2019s fall, officials in London have markedly taken the lead in legitimizing the HTS-led interim administration as Syria\u2019s new government. The group\u00a0<\/span>was added<\/span><\/a> to the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations in 2017, its entry stating HTS should be considered among \u201calternative names\u201d for the long-banned Al-Qaeda.<\/span><\/p>\n

While UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer <\/span>declared<\/span><\/a> it \u201ctoo early\u201d to rescind the group\u2019s designation, British officials <\/span>met<\/span><\/a> HTS representatives on 16 December \u2013 despite the <\/span>illegality<\/span><\/a> of such meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

This likely signals an impending, <\/span>highly politicized<\/span><\/a> western rehabilitation of HTS. Throughout Syria\u2019s dirty war, UK intelligence waged extensive <\/span>psychological operations<\/span><\/a> to promote \u201cmoderate rebels,\u201d crafting atrocity propaganda and human-interest stories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These efforts were ostensibly aimed at undermining groups like HTS, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda. Yet leaked documents from UK intelligence reveal how HTS remained intertwined with Al-Qaeda post-2016, directly contradicting media narratives.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, throughout the decade-and-a-half-long crisis, HTS was officially considered on par with the most fundamentalist, genocidal elements in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

British documents also make a total mockery of the\u00a0<\/span>common refrain<\/span><\/a> that HTS severed all ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016. A 2020 file described how Al-Qaeda \u201cco-exists\u201d with HTS in occupied Syrian territory, using it as a launchpad for transnational attacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The document warned that HTS\u2019s domination created a \u201csafe haven\u201d for Al-Qaeda to train and expand, fueled by instability. British psyops against HTS spanned years but ultimately failed. Instead, leaked files lament HTS\u2019s growing influence, territorial gains, and rebranding as an alternative government.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>[Al-Qaeda] remains an explicitly Salafi-Jihadist transnational group with objectives and targets which extend outside Syria\u2019s borders. [Al-Qaeda\u2019s] priority is to maintain an instability fuelled safe haven in Syria, from which they are able to train and prepare for future expansion. HTS domination of north west Syria provides space for [Al-Qaeda] aligned groups and individuals to exist.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

British-backed propaganda benefiting HTS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

British intelligence psyops attempting to hinder HTS were in operation from the group\u2019s founding until recently. Yet, they appear to have achieved nothing. Numerous leaked files reviewed by <\/span>The Cradle<\/span><\/i> bemoan how HTS\u2019s \u201cinfluence and territorial control\u201d had \u201cdramatically grown\u201d over the years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Its successes allowed the extremist group \u201cto consolidate its position, neutralize opponents, and position itself as a key actor in northern Syria.\u201d But HTS’s \u201cdomination\u201d was secured in part by the group rebranding itself as an alternative government.<\/span><\/p>\n

HTS-occupied territory\u00a0<\/span>was home<\/span><\/a> to a variety of parallel service providers and institutions, including hospitals, law enforcement, schools, and courts. The group\u2019s domestic and international propaganda specifically promoted these resources as a demonstration of an \u201calternative\u201d Syria awaiting rollout across the entire country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, many of these structures and organizations \u2013 such as the infamous\u00a0<\/span>White Helmets<\/span><\/a>, who also operated in ISIS-run territories \u2013 were direct products of British intelligence, created for regime change propaganda purposes. Moreover, they were aggressively promoted by London at enormous expense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Repeated references are made in leaked UK intelligence documents to the importance of \u201c[raising] awareness of moderate opposition service provision,\u201d and providing domestic and international audiences with \u201ccompelling narratives and demonstrations of a credible alternative to the [Assad] regime.\u201d There is no consideration evident in the files that these efforts might be assisting HTS greatly in its own efforts to present itself as a \u201ccredible alternative\u201d to Assad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it is<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>acknowledged that Syrians in occupied territory would accommodate HTS \u201cparticularly if [they are] receiving services from it.\u201d Even more eerily, the documents note, \u201cHTS and other extremist armed groups are significantly less likely to attack opposition entities that are receiving support\u201d from the UK government\u2019s Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (CSSF).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was the mechanism through which Britain\u2019s Syrian\u00a0<\/span>propaganda war<\/span><\/a> and organizations like the White Helmets and extremist-linked\u00a0<\/span>Free Syrian Police<\/span><\/a> were financed.<\/span><\/p>\n

These UK-run governance structures and opposition elements, which were allegedly intended to \u201cundermine\u201d HTS, operated in areas controlled by the group\u00a0safe from violent reprisals for their foreign-funded work, as they \u201cdemonstrably provide key services\u201d to residents of occupied territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also the darker prospect that HTS was well aware these \u201copposition entities\u201d were bankrolled by British intelligence, and they were unmolested on that very basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coordinated offensive<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Telegraph<\/span><\/i>‘s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>report explains, \u201cthe first indication that Washington had prior knowledge\u201d of HTS\u2019s offensive was when its <\/span>RCA<\/span><\/a> proxies were given a rousing pep talk by their US handlers three weeks prior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At a secret meeting at the US-controlled <\/span>Al-Tanf air base<\/span><\/a> close to the borders of Jordan and Iraq, the militants were told to scale up their forces and \u201cbe ready\u201d for an attack that \u201ccould lead to the end\u201d of Assad. A quoted RCA captain told the outlet:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not tell us how it would happen. We were just told: \u2018Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.\u2019 But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This followed US officers at the base, swelling the RCA\u2019s ranks by unifying the group with other UK\/US-trained, funded, and directed Sunni desert units and rebel units operating out of Al-Tanf under joint command.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>The Telegraph<\/span><\/i>, \u201cRCA and the fighters of HTS \u2026 were cooperating, and communication between the two forces was being coordinated by the Americans.\u201d This collaboration proved to be of devastating effect in the \u201clightning offensive,\u201d with RCA rapidly seizing key territory across the country upon explicit US orders.<\/span><\/p>\n

RCA even joined forces with another rebel faction in the southern city of Deraa, which reached Damascus before HTS. RCA now occupies roughly one-fifth of the country, pockets of territory in Damascus, and the ancient city of Palmyra.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hitherto \u201cheavily defended\u201d by Russia and Hezbollah, Moscow\u2019s local base has now been taken over by RCA. \u201cAll members of the force continued to be armed by the US,\u201d receiving salaries of $400 monthly, nearly 12 times what Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers were paid.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is uncertain whether this direct financing of the RCA and other extremist militias that toppled the Assad government continues today. What is clear, though, is that the UK and US supported HTS from the group\u2019s inception, even if \u201cindirectly.\u201d In turn, this covert backing played a pivotal role in positioning HTS financially, geopolitically, materially, and militarily for its \u201clightning\u201d swoop on Damascus and assumption of government today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reinforcing the interpretation that this was the objective of London and Washington all along, following Assad\u2019s ouster, Starmer\u00a0<\/span>promptly declared<\/span><\/a> that the UK would \u201cplay a more present and consistent role\u201d in West Asia as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While western and certain regional capitals may celebrate the apparent success of their lavishly funded, blood-soaked campaign to dismantle decades of Baathism, British intelligence had long cautioned that the outcome would grant Al-Qaeda an even larger \u201cinstability-fueled safe haven\u201d for \u201cfuture expansion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kit Klarenberg is a British investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thecradle.co<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Dec 2024 – A deep dive into the covert support the UK and US provided to HTS exposes the calculated, secretive western strategies to support the Al-Qaeda-linked, UN-designated terror group that runs Syria today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":283793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[3407,703,393,3419,2571,880,413,639,124,70,2686,492],"class_list":["post-283792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria-in-context","tag-abu-mohammed-al-jolani","tag-al-qaeda","tag-coup","tag-hts-hayat-tahrir-al-sham","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-state-terrorism","tag-syria","tag-uk","tag-united-nations","tag-usa","tag-war-of-terror","tag-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283792"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283797,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283792\/revisions\/283797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}