US drops $10 million bounty on leader of HTS militants

The US is dropping a $10 million prize it had set for the arrest of the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants in Syria.

The announcement was made by US Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf on Friday. 

This came after a US delegation visited the Syrian capital to meet with the HTS officials, including its leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, over his involvement with Al-Qaeda. He was designated a terrorist by the US in 2017.

The American diplomat said they received, in her words, positive messages, during the discussions in Damascus. 

During a press conference, Leaf told Sharaa of the “critical need to ensure terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region.”

“Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer,” she said.

Leaf, leading the first formal visit by US diplomats to Damascus since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, called Sharaa a “pragmatic” leader.

She called their meeting “quite good, very productive, detailed.”

“We welcomed positive messages’ from Al-Sharaa since his Islamist HTS rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad, she said. “We will be looking for progress on these principles and actions, not just words.”

HTS remains on Washington's terror blacklist. Leaf did not comment on the designation but said that after her discussions with Al-Sharaa, “it's a little incoherent, then, to have a bounty on the guy's head.”

This is the first formal US diplomatic mission to Damascus since 2011 when Takfiri terrorists from around the world trickled into Syria and unleashed a brutal war on the country.

The period saw the US intensify its sanctions on Syria which culminated in the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad this month.

The US closed its own embassy in Damascus in February 2012, with the Czech Republic representing US interests in the country.

In a statement issued last week, the US said it would be prepared to recognize Syria’s new government if certain conditions were met. 

Much has been made of Jolani’s position  - or lack thereof - on Israel, which has bombed more than 500 targets in Syria since the ousting of Assad. Israel has also made new land grabs inside Syria including what it calls its "buffer zone" in the Golan Heights, which the regime illegally occupies under international law.  

Throughout the intensified Israeli aggression, HTS and other Takfiri groups have stood by and watched. 

Observers say the fact that Jolani told The Times that Syria would not threaten Israel may very well be a bid to secure recognition from the West, especially the US, leading to the decisions being made in Washington now. 

Sharaa on Monday met with the UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pederson, and a day later with a German delegation. French diplomats returned to their embassy in Damascus, raising the tricolor flag for the first time since 2012.

In 2020, the EU accused HTS of unlawfully detaining, torturing and murdering civilians living in areas under the group's control and said this may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Senior US delegation in Syria for talks with HTS ‘terrorists’

A senior delegation of US diplomats has arrived in Syria to speak directly to the representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which is designated a terrorist group by Washington.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has disclosed it secretly doubled the number of US troops in northeast Syria from 900 to 2,000 soldiers before militants began their swift takeover of the country. 

The figures were revealed on Thursday due to “sensitivity from a diplomatic and operational security standpoint”, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder explained during a briefing. 

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