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Ukrainian-trained jihadists achieve great success in Syria
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The jihadists who in recent weeks have achieved great success against Bashar al-Assad's government forces in Syria have been trained by Ukrainian special forces. It reports Kyiv post.

Last week, Aleppo, Syria's second largest city, was captured by a coalition of Islamist forces led by former al-Qaeda ally Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The Sunni Muslim jihadists received support from groups which in turn are supported by Turkey.


For the first time in eight years, the war thus came again to the Syrian metropolis. In December 2016, government forces succeeded in recapturing Aleppo after a four-year battle. Since then, the city has been relatively calm, with occasional fighting on its western outskirts.

Help from Ukraine
In the battle for Aleppo in 2016, the Syrian government forces received extensive help from Russia, not least in the form of air support, in defeating the various Islamist groups challenging the government in Damascus for power.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is closely allied with Russia's dito Vladimir Putin. That in itself is an important reason why the Western powers, the USA and the EU, tried to topple him from power by using money and weapons to fuel various rebel movements in Syria.


Assad and Putin. Photo: Government of Syria
And when Aleppo is now once again conquered by an Islamist group, they are also getting help from outside this time. Kyiv post writes that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was trained by special forces from the Khimik group, which belongs to Ukraine's military intelligence service (HUR).

In September of this year, the Ukrainian Khimik group was also said to have been behind an attack on a Russian base outside Aleppo.

Want to access Russians
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS as many abbreviate the name as, is an incarnation of what was formerly called Jabhat al-Nusra. A former branch of al-Qaeda that is labeled a terrorist by the United States and blacklisted by the UN Security Council.

The group has previously been linked to a long list of brutal war crimes, and imposes strict Sharia law in the areas it manages to take control of.


Kyrylo Budanov. Photo: Government of Ukraine
Despite this, the Ukrainian intelligence service has chosen to train the HTS jihadists in order to gain access to Russian forces in Syria.

- We will continue to kill Russians anywhere and everywhere until Ukraine achieves total victory, HUR chief Major General Kyrylo Budanov has previously justified Ukrainian foreign operations.

“Tactical Retreat”
The jihadists' surprisingly large and rapid successes must have been preceded by the fact that the Syrian and Russian units carried out a "tactical retreat".

Due to the war in Ukraine, Russia has withdrawn troops from Syria, and no longer has the same ability to assist its Syrian allies as it did eight years ago. Something which in itself is said to have encouraged "HTS" to launch an offensive.

In the Western world, there are now many who celebrate the success of the Islamists in Syria, and the return to Sharia law for millions of Syrians. They hope that this time it will lead to al-Assad being overthrown from power and that Russia will lose its bases in the country at the same time.