Biden Admin Retracts $10 Million Bounty Against Syrian Insurgent Leader Who Ousted Assad

Last updated on December 21st, 2024 at 07:50 am

President Joe Biden’s administration has retracted a $10 million bounty against Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda militant who engineered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s recent fall from power.

Sharaa, also known by his war name Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, is the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist organization that the United States has designated as a terrorist group. HTS is a rebrand of Jabhat al-Nusra, which was itself an offshoot of al-Qaeda.

The U.S. bounty notice for Sharaa notes his role in founding the al-Nusra front, and states the group has taken part in kidnappings and killings in Syria over the years, including the 2015 “massacre of 20 residents in the Druze village of Qalb Lawzeh in Idlib province, Syria.” The bounty page further notes HTS’s status as a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

The decision to drop the counter-terrorism bounty against Sharaa coincided with a visit to Syria by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara A. Leaf on Dec. 20.

The United States had sought Assad’s removal from power over the years. While the Biden administration didn’t openly support HTS as it marched on the Syria capital of Damascus to depose Assad, they have welcomed Assad’s fall from power.

HTS has since announced a transitional government in Damascus and appointed one of their representatives, Mohammed al-Bashir, to serve as the interim prime minister. Rather than decry the rise to power of a group they continue to designate as terrorists, the Biden administration has signaled they are still assessing how HTS will lead in post-Assad Syria.

Leaf said the decision to drop the bounty against Sharaa was necessary to facilitate discussions with him during her visit.

“If I’m sitting with the HTS leader, having a lengthy detailed discussion about a whole series of interests of the U.S., interests of Syria, maybe interests of the region, suffice to say, it’s a little incoherent then to have a bounty on the guy’s head,” Leaf said.

Despite Sharaa’s past, Leaf said she heard “pragmatic and moderate” statements from him during their meeting.

“We will judge by deeds, not just by words,” she added.

Some reports have rumored that the Biden administration has considered dropping the terrorism designation against HTS.

Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA) have also called outright for the United States to begin easing sanctions against Syria, to facilitate the post-Assad reconstruction.

Leaf declined to offer specifics on any plans on sanctions or the terror designation against HTS, but didn’t rule out any possibilities.

“I think there’s going to be quite a degree of internal pressure for all of the interim authorities, and then whatever transitional government comes a few months from now to move the direction that would in fact be consonant with the kind of requirements that we would have in terms of sanctions,” she said.

The decision not to pursue the bounty against al-Sharaa, and to take a wait-and-see approach with HTS comes amid reports the Biden administration helped facilitate the HTS-led offensive that toppled the Assad government.

This week, The Telegraph reported a fighter affiliated with another insurgent group inside Syria claimed U.S. forces gave them a heads up about the HTS offensive that began on Nov. 27. Bashar al-Mashadani, who identified himself as a member of the U.S.-backed Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA), told the publication that he and other RCA members were encouraged to join in the offensive. Mashadani said U.S. enables also helped connect the RCA with HTS, so they could communicate and coordinate their actions.

Mashadani’s claims suggest a tacit, if opportunistic alliance between the U.S. government and one of the very same groups it has publicly identified as a terrorist group, to bring about Assad’s fall.