| Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham Organization for the Liberation of the Levant | |
|---|---|
| هيئة تحرير الشام Participant in the Syrian Civil War and the Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon | |
|  Logo of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham  Flag of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham | |
| Active | 28 January 2017 – present | 
| Ideology | |
| Leaders | 
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| Headquarters | Idlib, Idlib Governorate, Syria | 
| Area of operations |  Syria  Lebanon | 
| Strength | 31,000+ (20,000 al-Nusra fighters) | 
| Part of |  al-Qaeda (Covertly) | 
| Originated as | 
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| Allies | 
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| Opponents | State opponents Non-state opponents | 
| Battles and wars | |
State opponents
Non-state opponents
Military intervention against ISIL
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (Arabic: هيئة تحرير الشام, transliteration: Hayʼat Taḥrīr al-Shām, "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham and abbreviated HTS, is an active Jihadist and Salafist group involved in the Syrian Civil War. The group was formed on 28 January 2017 as a merger between Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (former al-Nusra Front), the Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. After the announcement, additional groups and individuals joined. The merger is currently led by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and former Ahrar al-Sham leaders, although the High Command consists of leaders from other groups. Many groups and individuals defected from Ahrar al-Sham, representing their more conservative and Salafist elements. Some analysts reported that the goal of forming Tahrir al-Sham was to unite all groups with al-Qaeda's extreme ideology under one banner, and to obtain as many weapons as possible. They also reported that many of the former Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fighters still answered to al-Qaeda, and held an increasing amount of sway over the new group. It was also reported that despite the recent formation of Tahrir al-Sham, the new group secretly maintains a fundamental link to al-Qaeda, and that many of the group's senior figures, particularly Abu Jaber, held similarly extreme views. Tahrir al-Sham has the goal of turning Syria into an Islamic Emirate run by al-Qaeda.