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🌊 The Jihadist Who Will Rule Syria
Plus: Why the US has put a $10M bounty on al-Jolani's head
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Around 2006, civil war was engulfing Iraq. Shia Muslims were killing Suni Muslims and vice versa. Amid this, American troops were trying to restore order, often at tremendous cost: American troops were dying daily and at an increasing rate.
And people like Abu Mohammad al-Jolani were killing them.
Iraq’s militants would conduct car bombings, suicide attacks, and shootings daily. They’d kidnap and assassinate local officials; they’d blow up American humvees as they passed
One day, Jolani was preparing for such an attack near the city of Mosul. While the details are murky, as he readied a roadside bomb, he was captured – thrown in prison like any other terrorist.
Jolani wasn’t just any terrorist, though.
The then-24-year-old was born to an economist father and a geography teacher mother. He grew up in an affluent neighborhood and was religiously conservative, but not a zealot. Around the year 2000, he enrolled in a university and his outlook started to change.
His studies coincided with the start of the Second Intifada, a period of Palestinian armed uprising against Israel that was defined by the use of suicide bombings and Israeli counterattacks. The situation struck a nerve with Jolani, whose family had been displaced by Israel during its 1967 war with Syria. He became increasingly religious and radicalized. After 9/11 – which made him “happy,” he said – he wanted to join al-Qaeda.
He’d soon get his chance.
In 2003, ahead of the American invasion, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad encouraged Syrians to go to Iraq and wage holy war against the Americans. Jolani answered the call, arriving in Baghdad several days before the Americans. He took up arms and linked up with other jihadists, eventually joining Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) – a group that would become one of the war’s most murderous. People like Jolani would take tens or hundreds of thousands of lives, both Iraqi civilians – whose mosques and markets they would blow to stoke sectarian violence – and coalition and Iraqi troops, against whom they waged a guerilla war.
Jolani’s mugshot after being captured by US troops
In the process of conducting that war, American troops captured Jolani and put him in prison, where he spent around five years. While there, he became affiliated with a new AQI-affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq.
The group was starting to grow and would soon become the world’s most notorious terror organization. Jolani would join – and this week became the ruler of Syria.
The rest of our deep dive explains how Jolani went from ISIS commander to rebel leader. You can sign up for a free trial at the button below. Once you do, you can access all our premium articles here. Thank you for supporting our mission!
So what do you think? Has he changed? Let us know by replying to this email.
Lots of replies from our readers lately. Here are a few:
On the killing of United Health’s CEO:
Anyone celebrating this murder has a depraved heart and should be put on an FBI watchlist. I also doubt that the killing has “united” the country. I suspect an accurate poll would show the country to be somewhat divided on this but reveal that a substantial majority of people do not believe the murder is justified. And it obviously is not justified. Just as it would not be justifiable for someone to shoot a university president to protest obscenely high tuition or to shoot a media executive to protest misleading news coverage.
On why healthcare costs are so high:
I'm sorry, but you've left out the biggest reason US healthcare is so expensive: Big Legal. When you factor in the direct and indirect legal costs out of US healthcare, it is very competitive with an extremely high level of quality. All the examples given by people of more cost effective health care systems are in nations that are not a fraction as litigious as America... and where patient's rights are also a fraction of those in the US
On extraterrestrials in the Pentagon:
I worked in the basement of the Pentagon for five years. There ARE extraterrestrials!!!! And there are 17 sites in North America where an underground/secret military/civilian contingency works alongside extraterrestrials.
Even though I know this for a fact, there are people out there, like my daughter in law, who refuse to accept there are extraterrestrials. The thought paralyzes her. Funny: We can talk about political differences but we can not talk or mention anything about UFOs or aliens.
Editor’s Note
We hope you enjoyed today’s deep dive. Our one on healthcare prices is up next. Stay tuned for that, and in the meantime, have a nice weekend.
–Max and Max
RocaNews co-founders