Jolani The Terrorist With ISIS, Part II

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

ISIS is still practicing its terrorism to this day showing it was not rubbed out. They are remembered by us cutting heads off their enemies.   

Jolani was once linked to the formation of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or Daech through his early work with al-Qaeda in Iraq. 

 ISIS is a transnational Salafi jihadist militant organization and an unrecognized quasi-state.

  Jolani, today's Syrian President,  publicly broke with ISIS and al-Qaeda, instead establishing HTS (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) as a Syrian-focused group. 

The U.S. still lists him as a terrorist, but Trump seems to be enamoured by him.   Jolani has spent most of his life as a terrorist and he still is a practicing one.  He has even  cut the head off of an enemy 

himself.  He speaks the language of the sword, so his compatriots said.

                  An ISIS Leader, maybe Jolani?

Key Leaders Eliminated (Examples)

• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Founder of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (precursor to ISIS), killed in 2006.
• Abu Omar al-Baghdadi & Abu Ayyub al-Masri: Leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), killed together in 2010.
• Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: The self-proclaimed Caliph, killed in a U.S. raid in 2019.
• Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi: The successor to al-Baghdadi, killed in a U.S. raid in 2022. 
• The group continues to operate, but with a significantly diminished central command structure.  Leadership has become more clandestine, with members often holding temporary or regional roles.The focus of counter-terrorism has shifted to dismantling its financial networks, online propaganda, and regional affiliates. In essence, ISIS leaders have been a primary target, leading to significant decapitation, but the ideology persists, forcing the organization to constantly adapt and find new figures to lead its fragmented operations.   

Syria’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday that security forces had arrested an ISIS (Daesh) cell in the Damascus countryside. “An ISIS terrorist cell was arrested in the town of Jadidat al-Shibani in the Barada Valley, in the countryside of Damascus,” a ministry source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), without providing further details.

            Abu Mohammed Jolani, head of al-Qaeda to rebel politician:  Abu Mohammad al-Jolani didn't take over from anyone in ISIS; rather, he was a commander sent by ISIS's precursor (then led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) to form the Syrian branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, before breaking away to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a rival group that fought ISIS and eventually ousted Assad. Jolani rose from al-Qaeda in Iraq, founded Nusra under Baghdadi, then split with ISIS and al-Qaeda, eventually leading HTS to govern parts of Syria.   

• Formation (2012): Jabhat al-Nusra (or Nusra Front) was formed as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to fight against the Bashar al-Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War.
• Al-Qaeda Affiliation: Its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Muhammad al-Julani), pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2013, solidifying its role as the official Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.

In late June 2014, the group, ISIS renamed itself ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya (lit. 'Islamic State' or IS), declaring itself a worldwide caliphate. The name "Islamic State" and the group's claim to be a caliphate have been widely rejected, with the UN, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups refusing to use the new name. The group's declaration of a new caliphate in June 2014 and its adoption of the name "Islamic State" have been criticized and ridiculed by Muslim scholars and rival Islamists both inside and outside the territory it controls.  It is designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and many countries around the world, including Muslim countries.

The new Syrian administration of Jolani's has been working to tighten security conditions nationwide since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024. Imagine.  Jolani helped to create ISIS and now showing people how to defend themselves against ISIS.

Syria formally joined the US-led international coalition against ISIS on Nov. 12, 2025.  The coalition was formed in 2014 and has carried out military operations against the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, though Damascus was not previously a member.   Reports indicate that Syria, under President Jolani, now called Ahmed al-Sharaa, formally joined the U.S.-led Global Coalition Against ISIS (Daesh) as its 90th member around November 12, 2025, marking a significant shift in regional dynamics as Damascus now partners with the U.S. and its allies in the ongoing effort to eliminate ISIS remnants and secure lasting stability in the Middle East, a notable move from its prior independent operations against the group. 

Reports also indicate that the terrorist, Jolani, has become very smugwith his fellow Syrians, showing that a terrorist did wiggle his way into thethrone of Syria, and can make the former Assad seem to have been an angel compared to him.  Jolani is said to be a cruel man, more so thanAssad.  Assad is hard to beat in that line cruelty.  He was quick with the chemical destruction of people.  

                           

On Dec. 13, 2025, three Americans, including two service members and one civilian, were killed and three US troops wounded in an ISIS ambush in the central city of Palmyra, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).   

On December 13, 2025, an ISIS ambush near Palmyra, Syria, killed two U.S. service members (Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard) and one civilian interpreter, with three other U.S. troops wounded, confirmed by CENTCOM as a lone ISIS gunman attack, prompting significant U.S. retaliatory strikes. 

Why would Trump like him so much?  What does Syria have he'd like? IsSyria like another Greenland?  

Syria possesses significant underground resources, primarily crude oil, natural gas, and phosphates, which have historically been crucial to its economy, alongside other valuable minerals like asphalt, rock salt, marble, gypsum, iron ore, chromium, and manganese ores, with potential in oil shale and magnesium-rich rocks for industrial use. 

Resource:

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/syria-arrests-isis-terrorist-cell-in-damascus-countryside/3798227

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/syria-joining-the-anti-isis-coalition-is-a-westward-pivot-with-opportunities-and-risks/#:~:text=While%20US%2DSyria%20coordination%20against,counterterrorism%20interests%20in%20the%20region.

https://www.facebook.com/TheStarKenya/posts/two-us-soldiers-and-a-us-civilian-interpreter-have-been-killed-in-syria-in-an-am/1323064713196068/

https://www.traveldocs.com/world-atlas/Syria-atlas216#:~:text=Syria's%20main%20exports%20include%20crude,22%25%20of%20GDP%20in%202008.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q0w1g8zqvo

Syrian Contact

Syria's President Sharaa AKA Jolani al-Qaeda Terrorist and Syria Update

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

As of Sunday, January 11, 2026, the main development in Syria is the withdrawal of Kurdish-led forces from key neighborhoods in Aleppo following days of intense fighting with government forces. Government forces would be the Syrians led by the former terrorist himself, Jolani AKA Ahmed al-Sharaa.  He was appointed to the transitional role on January 29, 2025, after serving as the de facto leader following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024.  "Al-Jolani" was a pseudonym he adopted after joining al-Qaeda in Iraq in the early 2000s, with "al-Jolani" in Arabic meaning "of the Golan", referring to where his family originated. 

Al Qaeda terrorists have conducted numerous deadly attacks and engaged in a range of criminal and insurgent activities globally. The most significant event was the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, which involved hijacking four commercial airliners and crashing them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. 

In response to their activities, the United States launched military operations to topple the Taliban and expanded counterterrorism efforts worldwide, which ultimately led to the death of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in 2011. 

Ansar al Din is a Malian armed group that hosts al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) much as the Taliban did in Afghanistan
  

• Founding and leading al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate: In 2011, al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sent al-Sharaa (Jolani) to Syria to establish a new organization, which became the Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra). Al-Nusra became al-Qaeda's official branch in Syria, with al-Sharaa as its emir.
• Organizing and leading military operations in Syria: As the leader of the Al-Nusra Front, he built a capable organization that secured its own donors, established control over territories, and conducted insurgent attacks and suicide bombings, aiming to overthrow the Assad regime and establish a state under their interpretation of Islamic law. with the goal of overthrowing the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and establishing an Islamic state following all Islamic rules.
  
  The United States’ killing of Ayman al-Zawahri, successor to Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida’s leader, marks the end of an era for the jihadi group. Any new leader will take over an organization with grand aspirations but weak capacity.  Ayman al-Zawahri, who led al-Qaida since Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011, is dead from a U.S. drone strike on a residential area in Kabul.
• Al-Qaeda Allegiance In April 2013, al-Nusra's leader formally pledged allegiance to then-al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The group was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States and blacklisted by the UN due to these ties.

Al-Sharaa later had a falling out with al-Baghdadi (who went on to lead ISIS) and eventually, in 2016, publicly severed ties with al-Qaeda to rebrand his group (first as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, then as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS). This split was a strategic move to focus on a local Syrian agenda and distance the group from al-Qaeda's transnational jihadist goals to gain local and potential international legitimacy. 

He is currently the interim president of Syria, having led the HTS offensive that toppled the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024. The U.S. had a $10 million bounty for information on him, though this has changed recently in light of new political developments. 

Key Updates

Aleppo Clashes End: Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)  Syrian Democratic Forces (a Kurdish-led military coalition) fighters have been evacuated from the contested Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods in northern Aleppo. The move followed international mediation to secure a ceasefire and allow safe passage for civilians and the wounded.

• Government Control: Syrian government forces have taken control of the evacuated areas. First responders have entered the neighborhoods to clear rubble and dismantle mines and explosive devices reportedly left by the Kurdish forces.
• Casualties and Displacement: The five days of fighting resulted in at least 23 to 30 deaths and more than 140,000 people were displaced, according to various reports. The conflict was the most intense violence between the two sides since the fall of the Assad government in December 2024.
  

  This photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows a U.S. Airman preparing an A-10 Thunderbolt II for flight from a base in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in support of Operation Hawkeye Strike.

  AP/U.S. Air Force via DVIDS
• US Airstrikes: The United States launched new retaliatory airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria as part of "Operation Hawkeye Strike" on January 10 and 11, in response to a deadly ambush that killed two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter in December 2025.   Operation Hawkeye Strike is an ongoing retaliatory military action by the United States against the Islamic State, following the December 2025 Palmyra attack by a Syrian police officer, suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State, that killed two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter.   Jordan also conducted airstrikes on IS targets in the country.

The events in Aleppo occurred after negotiations to integrate the SDF into the national Syrian army failed. The UN Security Council is expected to hold meetings on the political and humanitarian situation in Syria this month. 

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Syria#:~:text=After%20the%20fall%20of%20the,capacity%20since%2029%20January%202025.