Al-Qaida operates most prominently as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a Salafist group that is concentrated near and in the major Syrian city of Idlib. Tahrir al-Sham has between 7,000 and 11,000 domestic fighters and several thousand foreign recruits, UN experts told The Associated Press in February. Until the creation of Tahrir al-Sham in January 2017, al-Qaida’s main organization in Syria was the Nusra Front. How have the groups affected Turkey’s war strategy in Syria? In October, Turkey also launched a a military operation into Idlib, where forces clashed with Tahrir al-Sham.

Source: Egypt Independent March 17, 2018 18:33 UTC