Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a Sunni Islamist political and militant group that was set up in 2011 which has a key role in the Syrian civil war. The leader of the Islamist Group (IS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was involved in the formation of HTS in 2011 under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusra.

In just a few days, a patchwork of forces has seized control of a broad stretch of land in the west and northwest of Syria.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Monday branded an Islamist-led offensive that has captured swathes of territory a bid to redraw the map of the region in line with US interests. His comments, made in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian,