It didn't take long for Syrian jihadist groups to react to the first round of the Astana talks on Syria that were held Jan. 23-24 in the capital city of Kazakhstan. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, attacked the Syrian sites of the factions that participated in the talks under the sponsorship of Russia, Turkey and Iran in Astana.

Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which is classified as a terrorist group by the United Nations and the United States, attacked on Jan. 24 the headquarters of Jaish al-Mujahideen and al-Jabhat al-Shamiya in the governorate of Idlib and the countryside of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Jaish al-Mujahideen, along with other smaller factions, announced Jan. 26 their full allegiance to the Ahrar al-Sham movement — the biggest armed Syrian faction, classified as moderate by the West, Turkey and the Arab countries.

On Jan. 28, several jihadist groups announced their dissolution and the formation of a new armed group called the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, commonly referred to as Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is a merger between Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Din Front and Jaish al-Sunna.