Mr. al-Shara was once imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq, and then went on to found the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. He had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head until December of last year, shortly after he led a rebel offensive that ousted Syria’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian leader has been discreetly cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and Al Qaeda since he took control of a slice of rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria in 2016, according to Syrian officials and Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol.
They all told me “We were tricked at first. The news about improving economy was propagonda. The currency went up for 1 week, and government salaries were paid by the Gulf countries for 2 months only. After that people could not find work and the ones who do cannot find enough to eat working all day.”
The Syrians I spoke to none of them was dual national despite living abroad. They all have families who live in Syria and themselves visit Syria every few months to support their families there. I swear I did not make any word up. I myself wish for ordianary Syrians to at least thrive economically and live in peace even if their government was a traitorous dictatorship, but I was surprised by that part as well.