Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was formed in 2017 from a merger between al-Nusrah Front (ANF) and several other groups. HTS controls a portion of territory in northwest Syria, with the goal to oust Syria’s Assad regime and replace it with a Sunni Islamic state to further its own agenda as one of al-Qa’ida’s affiliates in Syria. HTS has taken several U.S. citizens hostage since its founding. HTS is an extremist element separate from the Syrian opposition, and exerts varying degrees of influence over local governance and external plotting.