HTS could not have taken Damascus without their help. We sit down with a Syrian rebel commander
SYRIA-CONFLICT
Photograph: AFP via Getty Images
SITTING IN A walled compound near the Syrian city of Daraa, not far from the Jordanian border, a Syrian rebel commander recalls his men’s part in the conquest of the capital, Damascus, a few days earlier. “We were supposed to wait until they took Homs, but when they took Hama, everyone decided to take up arms, we couldn’t stop them,” says the unassuming former trader now known by his nom de guerre, Abu Hamza.