ALEPPO — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has seemingly come a long way in seizing control over Idlib and aspires to expand that control at the Turkish-backed opposition's expense in northwestern Syria. Since early 2019 and after battling Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions, HTS has directed its attention to the development of the civil administration’s work and provided its affiliated Syrian Salvation Government with additional powers to set up institutions and bodies to manage civil action.

In the security sector, HTS portrays itself as the de facto ruler in its areas of influence and promotes its alleged success through the pursuit of Islamic State (IS) cells. The HTS general security apparatus announced Jan. 13 a security operation targeting an IS cell in the Idlib countryside.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Mahmood Talha, a journalist for the local Thiqah news agency, said that “HTS publicizes itself as a popular de facto authority. In its supporters' view, it is an anticipated and inevitable outcome based on its alleged success in creating a governmental and security system. Such allegations on the civil administration in Idlib are deceptive, and many institutions are only pro forma and have no significant efficiency, such as health and education bodies. This is while the Salvation Government gives attention to institutions through which it collects money and imposes taxes, such as the state property administration, the checkpoints, crossings, bakeries, fuel and transport administrations, as well as the camps affairs and humanitarian affairs directorates, and the municipalities directorate that has recently imposed fees on building permits.”

While HTS is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States and the UN Security Council, the US has focused its fire more recently on Haras al-Din, a more radical offshoot. Although HTS has worked to present itself as a more Syrian nationalist force and claims to have severed organizational links with Al-Qaeda, Damascus and Moscow continue to lump it as an offshoot of the latter. UN reports have cited human rights abuses and “war crimes” by the group.