What is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham? And how did the Islamist group evolve into a key player in Syria’s civil war?

from The Conversation: “The group originated as an offshoot of the Nusra Front, the official al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. In a pivotal shift in 2016… the Nusra Front publicly cut ties with al-Qaida and adopted the new name Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which means ‘Front for the Conquest of the Levant.’ The following year, it merged with several other factions in the Syrian war to become Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or the ‘Organization for the Liberation of the Levant.’ … This rebranding aimed to move away from al-Qaida’s global jihadist agenda… It allowed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to focus on issues specific to Syrians… In other words, it needed to balance its radical Islamist origins with the demands of local governance and political engagement.”