Active

Terror organization: 2012-2017 Emir of al Nusra, 2017 until today commander chief of Tahrir al Sham;

Status: Leader;

Role: al Nusra is the Syrian branch of al Qaeda. Tahrir al Sham is gathering different terror organization in Syria;

Julani succeeded to take down Bashar Assad’s horrify regime (December 2024) and he is now the official authority in Syria. He wanted to be called now in his real name – Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a.

Location: Syria;

Born: 1982;

Place of Birth: Syria;

Birth name: Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a;

Nationality: Syrian;

Religion: Sunni Islam;

Also Known As: Abu-Muhammad al-Jawlani;

General Info:
Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a, known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian militant group Tahrir al-Sham; he was also the emir of its predecessor organisation al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. The US State Department listed Al-Julani as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in May 2013, and four years later announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. As of February 2021, the bounty remains in force.

The nisba “Al-Julani” in his nom de guerre is a reference to Syria’s Golan Heights, partially occupied and annexed by Israel during the war in 1967. Al-Julani released an audio statement on 28 September 2014, in which he stated he would fight the “United States and its allies” and urged his fighters not to accept help from the West in their battle against ISIL.

His father worked in the oil industry and published a number of books on economics. His mother was a geography teacher and has an MA. He has four brothers and two sisters.

Once Jawlani, also known as “The Conqueror Sheikh”, moved to Iraq to fight American troops after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he quickly rose through the ranks of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and reportedly was a close associate of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

After al-Zarqawi was killed by a US airstrike in 2006, al-Julani left Iraq, briefly staying in Lebanon, where he offered logistical support for the Jund al-Sham militant group.

He returned to Iraq to continue fighting but was arrested by the US military and held at Camp Bucca.

At that camp, where the US military held tens of thousands of suspected militants, he taught classical Arabic to other prisoners.

After his release from Camp Bucca prison in 2008, al-Julani resumed his militant work, this time alongside Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the then Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). He was soon appointed head of ISI operations in Nineveh Province.

Al-Julani released an audio statement on 28 September 2014, in which he stated he would fight the “United States and its allies” and urged his fighters not to accept help from the West in their battle against ISIS.

On 28 July 2016, al-Julani announced in a recorded message that Jabhat al-Nusra would henceforth go under the new name of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham [Front for the Conquest of Syria].

As part of the announcement al-Julani stated that the rebranded group has “no affiliation to any external entity.”