Haiat Tahrir al-Sham Ascendant in Northwest Syria - Jamestown

"Following the fall of Aleppo, LAQ was formed from a core group of diehard jihadists left behind after the collapse of Jund al-Aqsa (JAQ), an ally of the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front active in northern Syria in the early days of Syria’s civil war.

JAQ had close ties to al-Nusra, with JAQ founder Abdul Aziz al-Qatari accompanying Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, the founder of al-Nusra, when he was sent by IS from Iraq to Syria to start the movement. However, while JAQ shared al-Nusra’s ideology, it refused to join it in fighting IS when the group separated from al-Nusra in 2013, arguing that there should be no conflict between fellow jihadists.

After the fall of Aleppo, however, JAQ was unable to maintain the position of being distinct from but friendly toward al-Nusra. Instead, it dissolved."