LOS ANGELES.–Seizing Syria’s second largest city last week, the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahir al-Sham [HTS] presents more problems for 59-year-old Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, showing the 15-year-old Syrian civil war continues to rage. Former President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden spent billions waging proxy war in Syria, sometimes supporting rebel groups with ties to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State [ISIS], who once seized control of Aleppo and Iraq’s oil-rich city of Mosul. Obama and Biden did everything possible to topple Bashar al-Assad’s Damascus regime, paying various rebel group to topple the Syrian government. When 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin intervened to save al-Assad in 2015, the U.S. –Turkish proxy war was all but defeated but not before killing over 500,000 Syrians, driving another 10 million into exile.
Obama and Biden’s Syrian proxy war destabilized the region leading to the latest takeover by a HTS, a former offshoot of al-Qaeda, the group started by Osama bin Laden that perpetrated Sept. 11, 2001, destroying the World Trade Center Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon. HTS seized Aleppo Dec. 1, presenting problems for the major factions still with fighting forces in Northern Syria, including the United States, Iran, Turkey, Kurdish YPG [Kurdish Protection Units] fighters and various Syrian rebel groups still working to topple al-Assad’s Damascus regime. Aleppo has fallen once again to HTS terrorists, seeking, to set up another Islamist state in Syria. Al-Assad survived the so-called 2011 Arab Spring, a group of loosely connected revolutionary movements starting in Egypt and toppling Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, then ISIS moving into Iraq and Syria in 2012.
Obama and Biden’s proxy war against al-Assad cost the Treasury billions but did nothing other than destabilize an otherwise volatile region, turning Syria into a terrorist haven. When you consider the U.S. has 900 troops in Northern Syria, you’d think they would have monitored HTS developments carefully, before the terrorist group pounced on Aleppo once it became vulnerable for the taking. Al-Assad currently controls about 70% of Syrian territory, the rest is occupied the Kurd’s YPG, Turkish forces, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, Kurdish YPG forces, Syrian Democratic Forces and other rebel groups seeking to topple al-Assad’s Damascus government. Syria was once defended by Hezbollah that wasted itself in a useless ideological war with Israel, destroying much of its leadership, leading to the vulnerability that allowed HTS to take over Aleppo.
Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, once part of the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. in Iraq that morphed into ISIS, founded HTS from the Jabhat al-Nusra or Al-Nusra Front, once a close partners of al-Qaeda. Al-Jolani now has the most powerful terror group in Syria with an estimated 30,000 rebels under his control. Al-Jolani learned well from ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, once the terrorist leader that plagued Iraq and Syria for over seven years until his death Oct. 27, 2019. Torturing, beheading and massacring his opposition, al-Jolani is every bit has ruthless as Baghdadi, though not on the same scale yet. Already controlling Idlib with his forces, capturing Aleppo was a major step in ascending to control the region. Al-Assad isn’t getting the same help from Iran and Hezbollah, too busy battling Israel for no strategic purpose other than supporting Hamas.
Al-Jolani appears to have capitalized on Iran and Hezbollah’s distraction with Israel, pouncing on Aleppo when it presented an opportunity. “If the rebel forces waited too long, the regime would have been able to reinforce their frontlines as Hezbollah fore are no longer busy with the war in Lebanon,” said Haid Haid a military analyst in the region. Turkish military units in Northern Syria are too preoccupied with the Kurd’s YPG [Kurdish Protection Groups], the same groups that worked win 2019 to finally neutralize ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Russia promised, while bogged down in Ukraine, to send more reinforcements to Aleppo to help expel HTS whenever possible. Meanwhile Al-Jolani has control of Idlib and Aleppo, repeating the same mistakes as ISIS when al-Baghdadi ran roughshod over every Syrian rebel group backed by the U.S. and Turkey to topple al-Assad.
Biden’s chaotic foreign policy has left the world burning in Ukraine, the Mideast and now in Syria, where the past U.S. effort to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad failed in 2015. Obama and Biden destabilized Syria, leading to the rise of ISIS that created havoc all over the Middle East for nearly seven years. Now Biden’s same chaos led to the rise of Al-Jolani and HTS, now seizing Idlib and Aleppo. Whether al-Assad can get the help he needs from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah is anyone’s guess. Russian President Vladimir Putin finds his hands full at the moment battling the Ukraine War. Whether Iran and Hezbollah stop their utterly futile nonsense with Israel is anyone’s guess. Al-Assad will no doubt get reinforcements and try to retake Idlib and Aleppo in the near future. Without help from Russia, Iran or Hezbollah Al-Jolani won’t go anywhere anytime soon.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
