Lyse Doucet: HTS leader not only player in Syria's fast-changing future

Bashar al-Assad's regime is gone, but it remains unclear what Syria's new order will eventually look like, writes Lyse Doucet.

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Within hours, the powerful Islamist group driving the rebels' rise to power reported they had reached the centre of the Syrian capital.

The leader of Hayat Tahrir-al Shams, Abu Mohammad al-Jowlani, triumphantly announced "the capture of Damascus". Now he's using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, rather than his nom de guerre as a sign of his sudden rise to a much greater national role.

He's certain to play a decisive part in defining Syria's new order after this sudden stunning end to a half century of repressive rule by the Assad family. But the leader of an organisation proscribed by the UN as well as western governments is not the only pivotal player on Syria's fast shifting scene.

"The story is not written yet," cautions Marie Forestier, senior Syria advisor for the European Institute of Peace. She, and other informed observers who happened to be attending the annual Doha Forum, point out that it was another rebel group, recently named as the Southern Operations room, working with people living in the city, who surged into the capital. The ranks of this force are dominated by fighters from the former Free Syrian Army (FSA), who worked closely with western powers at the start of Syria's 2011 uprising,

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kv582lpnro

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