Northwestern Syria: Al-Nusra Commanders Arrested under Turkish Army Supervision

The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network reported that the Al-Nusra has intensified arrest and incaceration of its senior commanders in Idlib province.

In the meantime, local sources said that the Al-Nusra has arrested Abu Mas’ab Libiya’yee, Abu Abdul Rahman al-Maleki, the emir of Al-Nusra’s Epic Soldiers and Abu Khadija Ordoni, the emir of border units and seven other commanders in training centers and 11 muftis (religious leaders) that had previously worked with Jund al-Aqsa along with tens of senior members of the group.

The sources further pointed to the differences between Al-Nusra Commander-in-Chief Abu Mohammad al-Julani and other dissident commanders that were ideologically close to Al-Qaeda and have opposed the Turkish army’s plan to enter Idlib.

They added that the arrest of the dissident commanders by Al-Nusra was carried out at the order of the Turkish army to end riot in Al-Nusra’s ranks.

The sources, meantime, disclosed that the Turkish intelligence service supervised the capture of the commanders and a patrolling vehicle of the Turkish army accompanied Al-Nusra’s convoy of vehicles in the terrorist group’s attack on the neighborhoods of al-Qosour, al-Thowra and al-Rana Idlib.

Websites reported on Tuesday that the Al-Nusra Front arrested several senior commanders that were ideologically close to Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaeda, in Idlib province.

The websites reported that Al-Nusra arrested Abu al-Qassem al-Ordoni, the former deputy of Abu Mas’ab al-Zarqawi, Sami al-Aridi, Al-Nusra’s former mufti, Abu Hammam al-Souri, a former commander of Al-Nusra and Abu Jalbab al-Ordoni, the senior commander of Al-Nusra after their opposition to the terrorist group’s thoughts.

The websites further added that the arrested commanders were ideologically close to al-Zawahiri.

They went on to say that Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, had called on the commanders before their arrest to take part in a reconciliation session, but the commanders were arrested and sent to an unknown location after taking part in the meeting.