[NPASYRIA] The visit of the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
 ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS, formerly al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front) to Christian villages in Jisr al-Shughour countryside, and before that to Jabal al-Summaq of Druze majority in the northwestern countryside of Idlib, northwest Syria, contradicts the policy pursued by the HTS towards the two sects.
Recently, the HTS leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has revealed that he seeks to form a "Sunni project", after his successive appearance in civilian clothes in many public occasions.
Since the beginning of this year, al-Julani has recorded 15 public appearances in non-military clothes in his areas of control in northwest Syria on different occasions, the first of which was at the inauguration of Aleppo-Bab al-Hawa highway, and the last of which was his visit to IDPs camps north of Idlib.
He also visited Deir Hassan camps and one of the HTS camps, and reviewed in Ariha the achievements of the HTS, as well as he visited the Druze-dominated villages of Jabal al-Summaq.
Observers and politicians believe that by appearing as a moderate person, al-Julani tries to show himself as a civilian figure who can control the region and assume a role in the Syrian government.
Previous North Press reports indicated that the villages of Jabal al-Summaq (Jabal al-Druze) are marginalized and lack the basic services such as schools, medical posts, and civil institutions unlike other areas, which the residents described as deliberate.
Jabal al-Summaq includes the villages of Qalb Loze, Banabil, Bashandalenti, Kafr Kila, Kafr Maris, Helleh, Talteta, KuKu, Bshendlaya. All are populated with more than 15,000 residents, the majority of whom are Druze, and it is administratively part of Harem region, north of Idlib.
Most of the hard-line factions, since their takeover of Idlib regions in 2015, led by HTS, have followed a restricting policy against the Christian community, not to mention confiscating their property and homes, closing their churches and preventing them from practicing their religious rituals.
Two days ago, al-Julani’s visit to Christian villages in Jisr al-Shughur area, southwest of Idlib, provoked widespread controversy among the anti-HTS bad boy circles, who viewed the visit as a clear challenge to the bad boy movement whose voices began to rise within HTS and threaten it internally.
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