Inside sex slave-owning al-Qaeda splinter group HTS storming across Syria arresting TikTokers in mission to oust Assad

MILITANT Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have stormed across Syria within days in a mission to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

The lightning offensive has placed the group and its dark history involving ISIS and al-Qaeda back in the spotlight - despite trying to fix its dire image in recent years.

Syria has been at war ever since Assad put a stop to democracy protests in 2011.

As his brutal crackdowns increased in severity, citizens looked to defend themselves - leading to the creation of armed groups like HTS.

A group made up of terrorists

HTS - a Sunni Muslim movement - is the biggest opposition group in Syria's "Operation Deterrence of Aggression" as it looks to replace the Assad regime.

The group - established in 2012 - was formerly named Jabhat al-Nusra before switching to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

HTS' leader, Abu Mohammedal Jolani, joined the insurgency against US forces led by al-Qaeda in neighbouring Iraq after the 2003 US invasion.

After the uprising against Assad, he returned in 2011 and by 2012 had established the Jabhat al-Nusra - otherwise known as the Nusra Front.

Renowned terror group ISIS take credit for the creation of the Nusra Front, with its mad leader labelling it as Syrian subordinate to his bloody organisation.

But as the two terror groups competed for fighters in Syria, HTS shifted and declared allegiance to al-Qaeda.

The group - responsible for the world's biggest terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 - provided fighters, arms and money for HTS.

But 2017 it severed its ties with al-Qaeda and instead joined with other fractions, eventually developing into its re-brand as HTS.

Sex slaves, organ trafficking and torture

Having been originally established by ISIS and then showed allegiance to al-Qaeda, in the same fashion of its predecessors, HTS' list of sexual abuse against women and girls is endless.

According reports, men have forced women and girls into sex slavery, marriages and human trafficking.

Some have even been known to be used as "gifts" to commanders in the heinous human rights abuses.

One woman had recalled her trauma after being sold by her own uncle for $5,000 under HTS control.

She told Al-Monitor how after being bought, she was taken to a house where a woman was running a prostitution ring.

Here she said she was repeatedly raped and sold to the friends of the man that bought her.

The 19-year-old said: "I told my uncle about what I was going through in this house but he did nothing to save me."

Victims have also shockingly been used for organ trafficking in Idlib.

But according to the director of the Syrian Center for Victims of Human Trafficking Asma Khalil, there is currently no official data on the exact number of victims affected by such heinous crimes.

And, as many families sell their daughters for money, they "hide what happened" to them "for fear of shame and stigmatization by society".

And the group's human rights abuses stretch further than women and girls, with HTS also committing massacres, bombings, kidnappings and unbelievable torture.

The United Nations labelled the group's detention practices as "brutal" due to the various methods used.

HTS were designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2018 and has since tried to show a more sensible image to gain power in Syria - which it now looks to do.

In fact, on Monday, the group said that Syrian Kurds have "full right to live in dignity and freedom" and would "not allow anyone to disrupt or attempt to undermine the brotherhood and cooperation between all parts of Syrian society."

This would have been unimaginable a few years ago - but HTC now looks to define itself as a Syrian revolutionary Islamist movement.

It therefore tries to maintain a plausible image by granting free passage to the Kurdish People's Protection Units, enabling them to flee to their stronghold in northeastern Syria.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's control in Syria

Currently, HTS controls Idlib and is thought to have up to an unbelievable 30,000 fighters.

The group also has economic control over some territory and resources there - including petroleum - which is a significant source of income.

Since taking control in 2017, the group has stopped itself from imposing Islamic practice in line with ultra-conservative ideology - but it still enforces gender segregation in schools and universities.

The group has not banned smoking nor forced women into covering their faces however.

But HTS does have an issue with social media and monitors various apps including TikTok - which has resulted in the detainment of users who post what they consider "immoral" videos.

Last Wednesday, the group launched a surprise offensive against Assad's regime - one of Vladimir Putin's allies.

Rebels managed to seize most of Aleppo and roamed the streets freely following the lightning-fast advance in the region.

Since then, various advances have been made and Syria's military - backed by Russian air attacks - are expected to form a "defensive line" to block off any further push at some point.

The main thrust of the surprise offensive has now shifted south, with the Islamist-led rebels battling Assad's troops on Tuesday as they advanced towards the city of Hama in central Syria, a war monitor said.

HTS and its allies fought some of the "most violent" clashes with troops in the area since launching the lightning offensive last week, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: "Clashes have erupted in the northern Hama countryside, where rebel factions managed to seize several cities and towns in the last few hours.

"Syrian and Russian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on the area."

Hama is a strategic city linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus and will be a top priority for Assad to hold.

But an AFP journalist in the northern Hama countryside saw dozens of Syrian army tanks and military vehicles abandoned by the side of the road.

The city was a bastion of opposition to the Assad government early on in the civil war and the site of frequent mass protests.

A rebel takeover of Hama would "pose a threat to the regime's popular base", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Russia first intervened directly in Syria's war in 2015 with strikes on rebel-held area and has pledged continued support with the latest fighting.

State news agency SANA also reported air strikes on Hama province and rebel bastion Idlib in the northwest.

"We want to advance on Hama after combing" towns that have been captured, a rebel fighter who identified himself as Abu al-Huda al-Sourani told AFP.

The province's western countryside is home to the Alawite community from which Assad hails.