As the commander of Al Qaeda's branch in Syria, Abu Mohamed al-Golani was a mysterious figure who shied away from the public eye, even as his group became the most powerful faction fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Today, he is the most recognizable rebel in Syria, and he has gradually emerged from the shadows since he severed ties with Al Qaeda in 2016, renamed the group and became the de facto ruler of rebel-held northwestern Syria, writes Reuters.
The transformation became apparent after rebels led by Golani's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as the Nusra Front, captured Aleppo last Sunday. Golani came to the fore by sending messages to try to appease Syrian minorities who fear the jihadists.
When the rebels entered Aleppo, once the largest city in pre-war Syria, video footage showed Golani in military uniform issuing orders, reminding fighters of directives to protect the people and barring them from entering homes.
On Wednesday, he visited the citadel of Aleppo, accompanied by a fighter waving the flag of the Syrian revolution - once rejected by Nusra but recently embraced by Golani, in a sign of rapprochement with Syria's main opposition.
Since the start of the offensive, he has issued statements under his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, Reuters reports.
"Golani was smarter than Assad. He adapted, reshaped, gained new allies and launched a minority charm offensive," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
Eron Lund, from the organization "Century International", said for the British agency that Golani and HTS have obviously changed their approach, although he emphasized that they are still "quite stubborn".
"It's PR, but the fact that they put effort into such moves shows that they are no longer as rigid as they used to be. The old school of Al Qaeda or the Islamic State would never do such a thing,” he said.
Golani and the Nusra Front emerged as the most powerful among a host of rebel factions that formed in the early days of the uprising against Assad more than a decade ago.
Before founding the Nusra Front, Golani fought for Al Qaeda in Iraq, where he spent five years in an American prison. He returned to Syria when the insurgency began and was sent by the then-leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, with the task of building up al-Qaeda's presence.
In 2013, the United States declared Golani a terrorist, stating that al-Qaeda in Iraq entrusted him with the task of overthrowing the Assad regime and establishing Islamic Sharia law in Syria, and that the Nusra Front carried out suicide attacks and propagated a violent ideology.
Turkey, the main foreign ally of the Syrian opposition, has designated HTS as a terrorist group, while supporting some of the other factions fighting in the northwest of the country.
Golani gave his first media interview in 2013, with his face wrapped in a dark scarf and his back to the camera. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he called for Syria to be governed according to Sharia law.
About eight years later, he appeared in an interview on a US Public Television Service (PBS) program, facing the camera, dressed in a shirt and jacket.
Golani stated that it was unfair that he was characterized as a terrorist and pointed out that he was against the killing of innocent people. He described in detail how the Nusra Front grew from six people who followed it from Iraq to 5.000 members within a year.
He also stressed that his group has never posed a threat to the West. “I repeat, our relationship with al-Qaeda has ended, and even when we were with al-Qaeda, we were opposed to conducting operations outside of Syria. It is completely against our policy," he said.
Golani waged a bloody war against his old ally Baghdadi after Islamic State tried to take over the Nusra Front in 2013, which was seen as more tolerant and less repressive of civilians and other rebel groups.
As the Islamic State crumbled, Golani consolidated HTS control in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, establishing a civilian administration called the Salvation Government.
President Assad's government considers HTS terrorists, as well as other rebels who rebelled against Damascus.
As the Sunni rebels advance, the HTS administration has issued several statements trying to appease the Shia Alawites and other Syrian minorities. In one statement, the Alawites were invited to separate from the Assad government and be part of a future Syria that "knows no religious divisions."
In a message to residents of a Christian town south of Aleppo, Golani promised they would be protected and their property preserved, urging them to stay in their homes and reject the Syrian government's "psychological warfare".
"He is really significant. The main rebel leader in Syria, the most powerful Islamist," said Eron Lund.
"They have adopted the symbols of the wider Syrian uprising... which they are now using and trying to appropriate the revolutionary legacy - claiming they are part of the 2011 movement, the people who rose up against Assad, and they are also Islamists," Lund points out.
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