Portrayed by the western media as a rebel leader in recent weeks, Al-Julani was identified for years as a terrorist and leader of the extremist and ultraconservative forces in Syria. He formed the terrorist organization Jabhat Al-Nusra, recognized at the time as the syrian affiliate of Al-Qaeda, and later merged it with other terrorist groups to form Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). teleSUR
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00:00And now let's note in details the origin of Abu Muhammad al-Hulani, leader of the
00:06Turkish force Hayyan Tahrir al-Sham HTS that overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Let's see.
00:18Al-Hulani was born in 1982 and grew up in Maseh, Damascus. In 2003 he traveled to Iraq to join
00:26al-Qaeda after the U.S. invasion. He was arrested in 2006 and detained for five years in various
00:32internationally denounced U.S. torture centers. In 2011 he returned to Syria and formed the
00:40terrorist organization Javad al-Nusra, recognized at the time as the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda.
00:46From this foundation also participated the former leader of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
00:53although the organization would claim to distance itself from these forces in subsequent years.
00:59In 2017 al-Hulani announced the creation of Hayyan Tahrir al-Sham HTS by merging his with other
01:06similarly oriented groups. Even when in recent weeks al-Hulani has been portrayed by the western
01:14media as a rebel leader and a freedom fighter, for years he was identified as a leader of the
01:20extremist and ultra-conservative forces in the region. In fact, on May 15, 2017, the year of the
01:29creation of HTS, the United States Embassy in Syria clarified through a post on its Twitter account,
01:34now X, its position on al-Hulani's organization by stating, the core of HTS is Nusra, a designated
01:42terrorist organization. This designation applies no matter what name it uses or how many groups
01:48merge into it. At the time, the U.S. Embassy concluded its post with al-Hulani's picture
01:55under the caption, stop this terrorist, and the announcement of a reward of up to 10 million dollars
02:01for information on his whereabouts. The official post is still up to this day on the U.S. Embassy's account.
02:10However, mere seven years later, the now president of the United States, Joe Biden,
02:16describes the overthrow of al-Assad's government by al-Hulani himself as an opportunity for all
02:21Syrian people. Meanwhile, the United States continues to use the pretext of the fight
02:26against terrorism as justification for sustaining military presence in Syrian territory.