HTS arrests leader in Guardians of Religion, releases another
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Local sources in the western countryside of Aleppo, northwestern Syria, said that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) arrested a leader in the al-Qaeda affiliated Guardians of Religion Organization, an armed group operating in northwest Syria’s Idlib governorate.
The sources added that on Saturday, the Authority’s General Security Agency took Abu Ahmed al-Libi from his home in the town of al-Sahhara, west of Aleppo.
They indicated that the town witnessed a women’s demonstration against HTS after the arrest.
Abu Ahmed al-Libi holds Libyan nationality. He previously worked with HTS in Aleppo, eventually splitting from it and joining the Guardians of Religion about a year and a half ago, according to the source.
Meanwhile, sources close to the Guardians of Religion said that HTS released Abu Urwa Kansafra after he was detained for eight days in its prisons.
Since the beginning of April, HTS has arrested about 15 leaders and members of the Guardians of Religion, including a sharia [Islamic law] judge in the organization, Abu Dhar al-Masri, who was arrested on April 4.
The organization is considered a branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, and one of the founding members of the Rouse the Believers Operations Room which later merged with the Fathbatu Operations Room.
The organization was established in February 2018 by jihadist fighters and clerics who abandoned groups like Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham when the latter groups attempted to distance themselves from al-Qaeda.