Al Qaeda in Syria Can Change Its Name, But Not Its Stripes

By Colin Clarke

Colin P. Clarke, Ph.D., is the Director of Policy and Research at The Soufan Group. Clarke’s research focuses on domestic and transnational terrorism, international security, and geopolitics. He is also a senior research fellow at The Soufan Center.

Following recent infighting with other Syrian rebel groups in the northwestern part of the country, al Qaeda in Syria appears to have recognized the need to secure legitimacy and present itself to the civilian population it seeks to influence as an authentically Syrian entity.

To that end, in late January, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria joined with four other jihadist groups to form a new organization — Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), or the “Assembly for Liberation of the Levant,” led by Abu Jaber (also known as Hashem al-Sheikh), former commander of the Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham. 

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