Ahmed Al-Sharaa took Damascus last December, leading to the fall of Bashar Al-Assad. With roots in Islamic terrorism, he tries to appear civilized while being evaluated by the major powers.
Ahmed al-Sharaa -also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohamed Al Jolani– walked through the streets of Damasco as if they already belonged to him. In the icy early morning of December 15, 2024, his convoy crossed the last checkpoints of the Syrian regime without resistance. There was no shooting, no battles. The forces loyal to the dictator Bashar al-Assad had disappeared before his arrival. By the time the first light of day illuminated the minarets of the Umayyad Mosque, Sharaa He was already inside, flanked by his men. Dressed in his military uniform, his gaze fixed on the horizon, he announced to the world what the Syrians already knew: the era of the clan Assad had finished.
Hours later, without cameras or proclamations, the new leader crossed the city towards Mezze, a middle-class neighborhood that had been his childhood home. There, on the tenth floor of a Soviet-era apartment block, he found the Suleiman, a family installed by the regime.Don't rush"He told them calmly.But this is my family's home, and we want it back.”, according to a detailed report by Financial TimesThere were no threats. He didn't even raise his voice. There was no need. The family understood the message and began packing their belongings.
The man who claimed his former home was not a traditional politician. Until recently, his name was barely a whisper in intelligence circles. To his followers, he was Abu Mohammad al JolaniLeader Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of the extremist group Al-Qaeda. For the West, a terrorist with a $10 million reward for his capture. Now, with the fall of Damasco, Ahmed al-Sharaa proclaimed himself the new ruler of Syria.
Sharaa He was not always a warrior. He was born in 1982 in Saudi Arabia, within a family that traced its lineage back to the prophet MuhammadHis childhood was spent in Mezze, a Damasco, where his father Hussein balanced his opposition to the regime of the Assad with a bureaucratic job in the government. The young man Ahmed He stood out for his intelligence and his slow voice, but also for his religiosity, which was stricter than that of his family.
In March 2003, when United States was preparing to invade Iraq, Sharaa He was 20 years old. One afternoon, he boarded a bus in Damasco bound for Baghdad, joining a wave of Arab volunteers willing to fight the Americans. The war devoured him. He was captured and sent to Abu Ghraib, the detention center where the United States held insurgents and terrorist suspects. There he spent years surrounded by key figures of jihadism, such as future leaders of the Islamic State (ISIS). He learned from them. He studied their strategies. And when he came out, in 2011, he was no longer just a fighter: he had a plan.
When Sharaa Return to Syria, the country was already in flames. The Arab Spring had ignited a rebellion against Assad, and Sharaa He saw in the chaos an opportunity to apply what he had learned in prison. With just six men and funds provided by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sneaked across the border from Iraq and founded Jabhat al-Nusra, a jihadist group that would soon eclipse the secular insurgency.
His strategy was surgical: Spectacular strikes against the regime, disciplined financing and a code of conduct less brutal than that of ISIS. While baghdadi He imposed public executions and medieval punishments in his caliphate, Nusra presented itself as a pragmatic force.They would arrive, carry out a flawless operation and disappear. They were the ghosts of the battlefront.“,” a Free Syrian Army commander would recall.
However Sharaa It was not long before he collided with baghdadi. In 2013, when ISIS tried to absorb Nusra, Sharaa resisted. He chose a dangerous path: breaking with al-Qaeda and going it alone. With that move, he lost his most radical fighters, but gained something more valuable: autonomy. To expand, Nusra It stopped being just a military force and began to administer territory.
The next step was Idlib, the last province controlled by the rebels. There, Sharaa He transformed his group into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), moving away from the image of al-Qaeda and consolidating a proto-state. He imposed taxes, established courts and controlled trade. However, His regime was not benign: Christian and Druze minorities were repressed, activists arrested, and internal opponents killed or imprisoned.
While the West viewed it with skepticism, Türkiye He saw in him a useful ally. In 2020, the Donald Trump administration approved a ceasefire in Idlib, de facto protecting HTS from an offensive by Assad and Russia. It was the key moment: Sharaa was no longer just an insurgent commander, but a political actor who negotiated with states and dictated the rules on their territory.
With Idlib insured, began to change his image. He was seen in markets, handing out bread. He trimmed his beard. He allowed meetings with journalists. At a meeting in 2019, he surprised a group of reporters by receiving them in person.I can't convince you all now", he told them.But if I see them one by one, each one will leave here convinced.".
That same pragmatism led him to secure alliances with key rebel groups, until, in December 2024, he entered into Damasco as the new lord of Syria.
The rise of Sharaa It has been dizzying, but its control remains fragile. Echoes of his jihadist past still resonate in his government. His administration is hermetic, dominated by former leaders of HTS and members of his family. The opposition accuses him of establishing a new dictatorship, and his former radical allies see him as a traitor.
Meanwhile, the world is watching. Türkiye tolerates it. Washington evaluates it. Russia despises it. In his first speech as leader, he avoided mentioning the word “democracy” and surrounded his government with former insurgent commanders. His wife, Latifa al-Droubi, appeared in public for the first time this year, dressed in an outfit carefully calculated to alienate neither liberals nor conservatives.
“Al-Golani has removed his mask, revealing his true face: that of a terrorist from the Al Qaeda school,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense said after accusing the new Syrian government of having massacred the Alawite population, in the context of fighting between militias loyal to the ousted dictator Al Assad and the forces of the new authorities. Faced with this situation, the Syrian government confirmed the presence of its troops in the south of the country.
Para muchos, Sharaa He is an extremely intelligent, adaptable and ruthless man.It is pragmatic“, say those who have dealt with him. But in recent months, another word has begun to creep into conversations about him: "autocrat".
Photos: Screenshot from YouTube