Abu Mohammed al-Golani is the leader of the rebel alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria.
, which is rooted in Syria's branch of al-Qaeda. He is an extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals.
, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions.
Earlier this week, he said the objective of the offensive, in which city after city fell from government control, was to overthrow Assad.
Thirteen years after Assad cracked down on a nascent democracy movement, sparking Syria's civil war,.
Golani had for years operated from the shadows.
Now, he is in the spotlight, giving interviews to the international media and delivering statements that have Syrians all around the world glued to their phones for clues of what the future might hold.
Earlier in the offensive, which began on 27 November, he appeared in Syria's second city Aleppo after wresting it from government control for the first time in the war.
He has over the years stopped sporting the turban worn by jihadists, often favouring military fatigues instead.
Since breaking ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, Golani has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader. But he is yet to quell suspicions among analysts and Western governments that still class HTS as a terrorist organisation.
"He is a pragmatic radical," Thomas Pierret, a specialist in political Islam, said.
"In 2014, he was at the height of his radicalism," Pierret said, referring to the period of the war when he sought to compete with the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group.
"Since then, he has moderated his rhetoric."
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Born in upscale Damascus
Born in 1982, Golani was raised in Mazzeh, an upscale district of Damascus.
He stems from a well-to-do family and was reportedly a good student.
During the offensive, he started signing his statements under his real name — Ahmed al-Sharaa.
In 2021, he told US broadcaster PBS that his nom de guerre was a reference to his family roots in the Golan Heights, claiming that his grandfather had been forced to flee after Israel's annexation of the area in 1967.
According to the Middle East Eye news website, it was after the September 11, 2001 attacks that Golani was first drawn to jihadist thinking.
"It was as a result of this admiration for the 9/11 attackers that the first signs of jihadism began to surface in Golani's life, as he began attending secretive sermons and panel discussions in marginalised suburbs of Damascus," the website said.
Abu Mohamad al-Jolani gives a speech from an undisclosed location, in the first video ever showing his face in 2016. Source: AFP / HO/AFP
He joined al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and was subsequently detained for five years, preventing him from rising through the ranks of the jihadist organisation.
In March 2011, when the revolt against Assad's rule erupted in Syria, he returned home and founded the al-Nusra Front, Syria's branch of al-Qaeda.
In 2013, he refused to swear allegiance to , and instead pledged his loyalty to al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Cutting ties with al-Qaeda
A realist in his partisans' eyes, an opportunist to his adversaries, Golani said in May 2015 that he, unlike the IS group, had no intention of launching attacks against the West.
He also proclaimed that should Assad be defeated, there would be no revenge attacks against the Alawite minority that the president's clan stems from.
He cut ties with al-Qaeda, claiming to do so in order to deprive the West of reasons to attack his organisation.
According to Pierret, he has since sought to chart a path towards becoming a credible statesman.
Residents cheered as they gathered on a street in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana on Sunday. Source: Getty / Louai Beshara
In areas under its grip, HTS developed a civilian government and established a semblance of a state in Idlib province, while crushing its rebel rivals.
Throughout this process, HTS faced accusations from residents and rights groups of brutal abuses against those who dared dissent, which the UN has classed as war crimes.
Aware perhaps of the fear and hatred his group has sparked, Golani has addressed residents of Aleppo, home to a sizeable Christian minority, in a bid to assure them that they would face no harm under his new regime.
He also called on his fighters to preserve security in the areas they had "liberated" from Assad's rule.
"I think it's primarily just good politics," said Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International think tank.
"The less local and international panic you have and the more Golani seems like a responsible actor instead of a toxic jihadi extremist, the easier his job will become. Is it totally sincere? Surely not," he said.
"But it's the smart thing to say and do right now."
