Abu Maria al-Qahtani as seen in old video footage. Click to see full-size image.
Abu Maria al-Qahtani, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and one of the terrorist group’s co-founders, was killed in a suicide bombing in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib on April 4.
The assassination came just 28 days after al-Qahtani, an Iraqi national, was released by the security forces of his own group following six months of arrest over allegations linking him to a spying ring that was reportedly working for the United States-led coalition.
In a statement released shortly after the arrest last August, HTS said that the commander “mis-managed his communications without taking into account his sensitive position”.
Last March, a special committee that was formed by HTS’ leader and al-Qahtani’s friend Abu Mohamad al-Julani to investigate the spying allegations against the commander and many others senior members of the terrorist group, who were also linked to the same spying ring, ruled in his favor and said that the evidence brought against him was false. He was quickly released afterwards.
Al-Qahtani was reportedly at his drawing room meeting and greeting people who have been visiting to congratulate him on his release when a suicide bomber blow himself up killing him and wounding at least four others.
The dead body of al-Qahtani. Click to see full-size image.
According to preliminary information, the bomber entered the drawing room accompanied by two other men, all disguised as tribal leaders. The three handed al-Qahtani an Arabian sword as a gift. A few minutes before the bomber blew himself up, the two men left the room.
HTS’ Amjad news agency released photos showing the gift sword as well as the remains of the fuses used in the bomber’s explosive belt.
Click to see full-size image.
Click to see full-size image.
Youssef al-Hajar, the head of HTS’ so-called Political Bureau, was reportedly among those wounded in the suicide bombing.
The scene of the assassination in Sarmada. Click to see full-size image.
Prior to the 2003 Iraq war, al-Qahtani, whose real name is Maysar Ali Musa Abdullah al-Juburi, was a student at the University of Mosul and a member of Fedayeen Saddam. After the fall of the Ba’athist government, he joined the Iraqi Police in Mosul but later left and was eventually arrested. While in al-Qaeda in Iraq, he served as the head of the religious police.
Al-Qahtani and al-Julani were sent to Syria after the 2011 uprising by the so-called Islamic States in Iraq, which later became ISIS.
In 2012, the two formed the al-Nusra Front. The group sided with al-Qaeda when ISIS split in 2014. Later in 2017, the group announced its own departure from al-Qaeda and rebranded as HTS. Al-Qahtani is said to have played a key role in HTS’s conflict with ISIS, split from al-Qaeda and rebranding.
The arrest of al-Qahtani and hundreds of other HTS members last year over spying allegation and later reports of brutal torture and secret executions by the terrorist group’s security forces led to a wave of protests in Greater Idlib, which is ruled by the group. Many prominent figures in the region demanded al-Julani to step down.
While sources close to HTS accused ISIS of assassinating al-Qahtani, most Syrian opposition activists said that the group itself was likely behind the suicide bombing.
The town in which the attack took place, Sarmada, is a tightly-secured stronghold of HTS where many senior commanders of the group live. Security personnel and checkpoints are said to be all over the town most of the time.
All in all, the assassination of al-Qahtani will deepen the split within the ranks of HTS. The terrorist group will likely also face more backlash from people in Greater Idlib, especially foreign Jihadists and eastern Syria tribes who were very close to the slain commander.
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awesome, i miss the old days when it the syrian war was the only was happening, the ukraine war was frozen, when the saa was kicking ass and retaking territory everyday, those were the days!
pay attention when so called “i.s.i.s” was next to israel, they never attack the zionist entity and never support palestinian struggle. they are zionist proxy and will be crushed. they go against mood of the arab people who want a better system than this garbage “rules” based stoopid
of course hasnt.
they have same enemy.
you got islam. they are in sect and far from them. ones which were kind of close were arabs in the syria eufrat valley.
thats why they took raqqa as capital. after some time they even likes them.
eufrat arabs are a milder version of saudies. thats why parts of saudia arabia has supported isis and their states.
saudis has never like addad.
i hope you you understand better. they all are tribes and tribes. its a very good reason why fx europa cant even send refugies to that. oeace areas dont take them. they and parias and never cant take a jobs.
another one bites the dust, hopefully julani won’t take long to join him in hell. :)
kurdish terrorists, turkish terrorists and their best allies in the region wahhabis are all fully supporting zionists. none of them said anything to “israel” and as matter of fact they all support “israel” against hamas/palestinians.