Watch on Crux Decode | The rapid military advance of a Syrian rebel group this past week has dramatically shifted the frontlines and upended long-held assumptions about a Middle East conflict that appeared stuck in a stalemate.The group behind these dramatic developments, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has held a consequential but checkered role in the country’s long-running civil war.With its roots in the early days of Syria’s 2011 uprising, the Organization for the Liberation of Greater Syria swept down this week from its strongholds in the northwest countryside to take control of a vast swath of a country that had long been under the grip of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. n18oc_world n18oc_crux