Syria’s interim government has appointed Ahmad al-Hayes, a US-sanctioned militia leader, as the new head of the army’s 86th division, which is responsible for Raqqa, Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, Syrian media reported Monday. His is the latest in a string of controversial appointments that run counter to efforts by the country’s new interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, to bury his extremist past. 

Hayes, who is better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Hatem Shaqra, is the head of Ahrar Al-Sharqiya, a militia founded in 2016 with the stated goal of helping to overthrow former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, but which rapidly evolved into a tool of the Turkish state against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the United States’ top local ally in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).  

The move was likely in line with Sharaa’s efforts to co-opt and integrate a panoply of armed factions as he struggles to bring the country, and those groups, under his government’s control. None of the appointments have been formally announced by the Ministry of Defense.

Recent spikes of violence with the minority Druze and the mass killings of Alawite civilians in March served as stark reminders of the massive challenges he faces, with groups like Ahrar Al-Sharqiya implicated in the surge of violence that unfolded against the Alawites.