Syrian rebels took a year to plan Bashar al-Assad's ouster, says report

Syria's Islamist-led rebel alliance had been planning the surprise ouster of President Bashar al-Assad for a year, an opposition military leader told The Guardian in an interview published on Dec 13.

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LONDON -

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group, which says it has moved away from its roots in Al-Qaeda, has long controlled a part of north-west Syria.

After being weakened in a 2019 government operation, the group realised the "fundamental problem was the absence of unified leadership and control over battle", Mr Abu Hassan al-Hamwi, an HTS commander and former leader of the group's military wing, told the British daily.

Correcting those mistakes, HTS began in 2023 preparing for a retaliatory operation dubbed "Deterring Aggression" to oust Mr Assad.

It strengthened its control over opposition groups in the north-west and trained up its own militia, developing a "comprehensive military doctrine".