IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – The fighting of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported by air force of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS against the Islamic State (ISIS) forced its leaders, security emirs and jurists to join Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – formerly al-Nusra Front) and Syrian National Army (SNA) where they have been leading security and high-profile statuses as Turkish intelligence services (MIT) merely preserve silence.
An HTS security source told North Press there was a bottomless list of ISIS emirs and leaders serving within the opposition factions, saying, “I will mention some of these who are deeply connected to the Turkish intelligence services.”
Abu al-Mughira al-Shami, his real name is Mahmoud Taha from the town of Qara, some 100 km north of Damascus, Syria’s capital. He is a prominent security figure running jails 106 in the northern section including Dana, Sarmada, and up to Atmeh camps in Idlib Governorate.
Al-Shami had a record of violations against locals in the city of al-Bab when ISIS was controlling the city. He was occupying a post in the security apparatus of the group under Abu Hamed al-Jazrawi and Abu Sufyan al-Tunisi.
Afterwards, he went to Manbij, Raqqa and then Deir ez-Zor under blows received by the Global Coalition and the SDF.
He was able to reach al-Ra’I town and Idlib. By mediations and approaches to the HTS’ emirs in 2018 he was able to join the security apparatus of the HTS and has become a prominent figure since then.
Abu Udayy al-Jazrawi whose real name is Azam al-Dowsari. He was in charge of the abducted Yezidi girls and women in the city of Abu Kamal and Iraqi al-Qaim within the so-called Vilayet al-Furat at the time.
He has a record of tens of reported violations against Yezidis. Right now, he is working with Hayat Zakat (an alms body) of the Salvation Government, the civil wing of the HTS.
In 2017, he reached Idlib in cooperation with Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction, namely Abu al-Walid Shaqra, in return for $12.000. He has a merchant’s card to go freely to Turkey along with Abu Adel Saksouk, owner of Saksouk Company for Exchange and Money Transfer.
A most sharia law jurist in HTS right now is Hish al-Homsi who was under ISIS’ Abu Ubaida al-Rawi. His real name is Omar al-Rawi a jurist in Shaddadi sector in the so-called “Wilayat al-Baraka” (Hasakah Governorate).
He is a graduate of Abu Sufyan al-Bahreni, a most prominent jurist in Raqqa along with Abu Fatima al-Qahtani and Othman al-Najeh al-Jazrawi. They were responsible for executions, beatings, and disappearances under baseless grounds.
Right now, he is running courses in the military camps of the HTS for militants affiliated with al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room. He is also teaching them suicides and infiltrations in Idlib and Aleppo fronts.
He reached Idlib in 2019 escaping from Raqqa, which was besieged by the SDF in 2017, to Syrian government-held area in Homs eastern countryside, then to Hama, and from Hama to Idlib in cooperation with officers in the government forces who were lured by large sums of money. He joined HTS with support given by Mazhar al-Weysi, a prominent jurist in the Shura Council.
The source told North Press there was also Manhal al-Tirkawi known as Abu Riyadh al-Tirkawi. He leads the so-called Khaled Ibn al-Walid Battalions in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the northern countryside of Hasakah.
He was a “most prominent arms dealer and a smuggler. He had a high position within the sleeper cells of ISIS in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. He used to secure every kind of weapons and orchestrated movement of the group’s leader between Syria and Turkey.”
Right now, “he is enjoying a high position with SNA and had strong relations with Turkish intelligence,” the source noted.
Despite his work in armament and recruitment between 2014 and 2018 in both Syria and Iraq in cooperation with Abu Ja’far al-Iraqi and Abu Hafs al-Shami, “He still lives at large as a military leader in Sere Kaniye and owns farms and real estates in Afrin of ownerships seized by SNA.”
Both Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Abdullah al-Qurashi were killed by the Global Coalition in areas under the Syrian opposition in Idlib close to the border with Turkey.