Ahmad Hussein al-Shara, known as Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, was born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian-origin family from the Golan Heights. In 1989, his family returned to...
Ahmad Hussein al-Shara, known as Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, was born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian-origin family from the Golan Heights. In 1989, his family returned to Syria, where he grew up in the Mazza neighborhood of Damascus. He studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Damascus but dropped out before completing his studies to join the fighting in Iraq.
During the Iraq War, al-Jolani joined al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he quickly rose through the ranks and became a prominent figure among jihadist activists. After being captured by American forces and imprisoned at Abu Ghraib prison, he was released in 2008 after five years of imprisonment. After his release, he resumed terrorist activities alongside Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, becoming the operations commander for al-Qaeda in the Nineveh province of Iraq.
In 2012, after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, al-Jolani founded the al-Nusra Front, which was linked to global al-Qaeda. On July 28, 2016, he announced the group's severance from al-Qaeda and changed its name to "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham." On January 28, 2017, he led the unification of Syrian jihadist groups under the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – "The Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" – where he served as the military commander. Under his command, the final battle to overthrow Assad's regime began in November 2024.
After the fall of Assad's regime on December 8, 2024, he moved to live in the capital, Damascus, and became the de facto president of Syria. Since then, he has led a series of steps to consolidate his power, including renewing diplomatic relations with various countries, uniting militias into one body, and meeting with leaders of different sects.
