Hayat Tahrir al-Sham kicks Chechen jihadis out of Idlib
After Hayat Tahrir al-Sham told the Chechen jihadi group Jund al-Sham it could either join its ranks or leave Idlib, the group's members evacuated their military positions in the countryside of Latakia.
IDLIB — Well-informed sources among jihadi groups told Al-Monitor that the Chechen Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of the Levant) group has given in to pressure from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and evacuated its military positions in the Latakia mountains.
The sources said that many members of Jund al-Sham left their weapons and went with their families to live in the countryside of Jisr al-Shughur in response to the demands of HTS, which had given the group the choice to dissolve itself or join its ranks.
According to the sources, HTS had given Jund al-Sham a deadline to dissolve or be forced to join it. In meetings between HTS leaders headed by Abu Maria al-Qahtani and five leaders from Jund al-Sham headed by Muslim al-Shishani, Qahtani rejected all the solutions Shishani proposed and insisted the faction be dissolved.
On July 2, Shishani shared the details of his meeting with HTS, saying that his group was asked to leave Idlib.
