War on the Rocks: “Leak Reveals Jihadists’ Weakening Grip in Syria’s Idlib”

I have a new article today, for War on the Rocks:

https://warontherocks.com/2020/04/leak-reveals-jihadists-weakening-grip-in-syrias-idlib/

I wrote about a leaked recording of an address by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) official Abu al-Fateh al-Farghali to a gathering of the Syrian jihadist group's fighters earlier this year. Farghali lectured them as rebels were reeling from months of losses in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, and as Turkey was escalating its direct involvement to prevent the opposition-held enclave's collapse – apparently, Farghali had to convince these HTS fighters they weren't dying for a Turkish secularist occupation.

The recording seems to reveal how the group has internally justified Turkey's intervention in Idlib since 2017, but also – as HTS and other rebels have been depleted, and as Turkey has unilaterally injected troops and stepped up its direct role – how HTS may have lost its grip inside Idlib.