Syrian rebels started planning the army assault that toppled the Assad regime a yr in the past, in a extremely disciplined operation through which a brand new drone unit was deployed and the place there was shut coordination between opposition teams across the nation, the highest army commander of the principle insurgent group has revealed.
In his first interview with international media for the reason that fall of Bashar al-Assad’s 54-year-rule, Abu Hassan al-Hamwi, the pinnacle of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) army wing, spoke about how his group, which was based mostly within the nation’s north-west, communicated with rebels within the south to create a unified battle room with the aim of finally surrounding Damascus from each instructions.
He mentioned that although the planning for the operation to oust Assad, dubbed “deterring aggression”, had began a yr in the past, the group had been making ready for years.
Since 2019, HTS has been growing a army doctrine that it used to show fighters coming from disparate, disorganised opposition and jihadist teams right into a disciplined combating power.
“After the last campaign [August 2019], during which we lost significant territory, all revolutionary factions realised the critical danger – the fundamental problem was the absence of unified leadership and control over battle,” al-Hamwi, 40, who has overseen the army wing for 5 years, mentioned throughout the interview in Jableh, a former regime stronghold.
The Syrian regime launched an operation towards opposition forces in north-west Syria in 2019, efficiently pushing again the loosely linked factions into Idlib province. After a last battle after which Turkey negotiated a ceasefire on behalf of opposition forces in spring 2020, rebels had been confined to a small pocket of land in north-west Syria – the place they might stay in a stalemate with regime forces till this month.
If it hoped to defeat the regime, HTS realised that it wanted to instil order to the hodgepodge alliance of opposition factions that had been pushed into Idlib. It supplied different teams to merge beneath its auspices, and after they refused, introduced them to heel. It fought towards teams such because the al-Qaida affiliate Hurras al-Din, which rejected HTS’s extra pragmatic Islamist method. Quickly, HTS grew to become the dominant energy in north-west Syria.
With the political command slowly unifying, al-Hamwi set to work on coaching the group’s fighters and to develop a complete army doctrine.
Al-Hamwi mentioned: “We studied the enemy thoroughly, analysing their tactics, both day and night, and used these insights to develop our own forces.”
The group, which was made up of insurgents, slowly grew to become a disciplined combating power. Navy branches, items and safety forces had been created.
HTS additionally started to provide its personal weaponry, automobiles and ammunition. Outgunned by the Assad regime, which had an airforce and the backing of Russia and Iran, the group knew that it wanted to get artistic to take advantage of out of restricted sources.
A drone unit was created, bringing collectively engineers, mechanics and chemists. “We unified their knowledge and set clear objectives: we needed reconnaissance drones, attack drones and suicide drones, with a focus on range and endurance,” al-Hamwi mentioned, including that drone manufacturing began in 2019.
The newest iteration of HTS drones was a brand new mannequin of suicide drone, named the “Shahin” drone by al-Hamwi himself, Arabic for falcon, “symbolising their precision and power”. The Shahin drone was deployed for the primary time towards regime forces this month, with devastating effectiveness. Artillery army automobiles had been disabled by a budget however efficient plane.
The group despatched out messages to rebels within the south a yr in the past and commenced to advise them on create a unified battle room. Southern Syria had been beneath regime management since 2018, and regardless of on-and-off combating, insurgent teams had been compelled underground. A lot of the southern opposition’s army management was in exile in Jordan, the place they maintained contact with their respective teams.
With HTS’s assist, an operations room was based, bringing collectively the commanders of round 25 insurgent teams within the south, who would every coordinate their fighters’ actions with each other and with HTS within the north. The aim was for HTS and its allies to method from the north and the southern operation room from the south, each assembly within the capital metropolis.
In late November, the group determined the time was proper.
The group before everything wished to cease the pattern of regional powers, led by nations such because the UAE and Saudi Arabia, from normalising relations with the Assad regime after years of diplomatic isolation. It additionally wished to cease intensifying aerial assaults on northwest Syria and its residents. Lastly, HTS noticed that Assad’s worldwide allies had been preoccupied, making a strategic opening.
Russia, which supplied nearly all of aerial assist, was slowed down in Ukraine. Iran and Hezbollah, whose fighters had been Assad’s fiercest floor troops, had been reeling from their battle with Israel.
HTS launched the operation, coming into Aleppo on 29 November. Hezbollah fighters tried to defend town, however quickly retreated. The fast fall of town, the second largest in Syria that took the Assad regime 4 years to wrest from insurgent management in 2016, astonished the group.
“We had a conviction, supported by historical precedent, that ‘Damascus cannot fall until Aleppo falls.’ The strength of the Syrian revolution was concentrated in the north, and we believed that once Aleppo was liberated, we could move southward toward Damascus,” al-Hamwi mentioned.
After the autumn of Aleppo, the insurgent advance within the north was seemingly unstoppable. 4 days later, the opposition took Hama, On 7 December, rebels began their offensive on Homs. They took town inside hours.
Rebels within the south had been supposed to attend till Homs fell to begin their very own insurrection within the south, in keeping with Abu Hamzeh, a frontrunner of the Operations Room to Liberate Damascus, however out of pleasure, they began earlier. Rebels rapidly pushed the Syrian military out of Daraa and reached Damascus earlier than HTS did.
On 8 December, Bashar al-Assad fled the nation.
Al-Hamwi, initially an agricultural engineer who graduated from Damascus college and was displaced by the Assad regime alongside together with his household to Idlib, mentioned he would transition into a job with the brand new civilian authorities.
The prospect of constructing a brand new nation is not any simple activity – which al-Hamwi acknowledged. There are fears from spiritual minorities that the Islamist group may impose its personal dogma.
“We affirm that minorities in Syria are part of the nation and have the right to practice their rituals, education, and services like every other Syrian citizen. The regime planted division, and we are trying, as much as possible, to bridge these divides,” al-Hamwi mentioned.
