Jihadist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS [7]) on Aug. 28 took over the city council building in Idlib, capital of the governorate of that name in northwest Syria and the biggest opposition-held city in the country. HTS fighters siezed the building a week after civil authorities refused to hand over control. HTS has in recent weeks won control of much territory in Idlib governorate, in ongoing battles with the rival Ahrar al-Sham [8] faction. However, HTS continues to face resistance from residents and many of the more than 150 local councils in the governorate, with demonstrations against their rule by civil resistance [8] activists in many areas.
In its report on the siezure of the council building, EA Worldview Syria Daily [9] refers to HTS as a "bloc" of militias "led by the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fatah al-Sham." However, they have elsewhere been described [10] as a splinter group that remained affiliated with al-Qaeda when the Nusra Front split last year, with the main body becoming Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and officially dropping ties to the international terrorist network. This confusion—and the fact that the ex-Nusra factions are now apparently allied again—would seem to loan credence to the perception that the Nusra Front's break from al-Qaeda was never real, but a facade intended for international consumption.
In any case, we noted when Aleppo [7] fell to Assad's forces last year that the city's rebel fighters and much of its civilian populace were being evacuated [11] to Idlib governorate, which was under the control of jihadist factions such as the post-Nusra formations and Ahrar al-Sham. Further evidence of how the Assad regime has (intentionally) turned its own propaganda about how the Syria rebels are all jihadists into a self-fulfilling prophecy [12]. With the HTS seizure of Idlib, things have just gone from bad to worse.