Tahrir al-Sham adapting to new realities

Aya Ezz

Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Qaeda, is introducing radical changes to its structure on the road of becoming an organization with diverse fully-fledged battalions.

The movement announced on September 29 the formation of 12 new battalions that have four main divisions, namely ground troops; snipers; armored corpse, and the artillery, according to the official Syrian news agency, SANA.

Tahrir al-Sham media officer Taqi Eddine Omar said the formation of the new divisions came after the members of these divisions had received the necessary training.

Restructuring

Tahrir al-Sham is centralizing its command by creating the new battalions.

This central command will make the different divisions of the organization deal more flexibly with developments on the ground, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted researcher Orabi Abdel Hai al-Orabi as saying.

He noted that the formation of the new battalions can also be an indication that Tahrir al-Sham has plans to merge into other organizations.

“This will help the organization become more solid,” he said.

Al-Orabi said Tahrir al-Sham does not have a strong ideology, even as some of its leaders are ideologically-oriented.

The fact is, however, he said, these leaders are not so effective inside the organization.

He added that Tahrir al-Sham strives to get political recognition as the ruling force in the eastern Syrian province of Idlib.

“It also wants to be removed from the list of terrorist groups,” al-Orabi said of Tahrir al-Sham.

PR campaign

Syrian activist Rayan Maarouf said Tahrir al-Sham is realizing the dangers of keeping its ideology as is.

“It knows that the international community will be against it if it keeps this ideology,” Maarouf told The Reference.

He added that the organization is out to improve its relations with international players.

He noted that Tahrir al-Sham wants to change its image and masquerade as a moderate organization.