...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...has accused "Abu Malek al-Talli" of "encouraging the disobedience and creating cracks among the ’Society'", referring to al-Talli’s attempts of abetting HTS members to leave the group and join his jihadi faction. al-Talli formed his own group just after defecting from HTS and joining "Fa’ethbato" Operation Room which comprises jihadi factions accused of "pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda".
HTS says in its statement, of which the Syrian Observatory has obtained a copy: "brother Abu Malek al-Talli has had a crucial role that cannot be denied in furthering the jihad. However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
he has sought for a long time to defect from the group to form his own faction. We talked to him and absorbed his willing as possible, as we do not want him to split, and we managed to keep him with us for long. When he decided to defect from the group, we wrote to him warning about the dangerous of forming a new faction, and he told us that he would never do so, and that he was considering the options of returning to the group. al-Talli has been still entrusted by the group with some tasks."
"We have been surprised with al-Talli’s formation of a new faction which aims, like the previous ones, to create cracks among the group, as the consequences of forming such factions are really well-known. We adviced him but he refused to change his position. Therefore, we believe that Abu Malek al-Talli must be prevented from completing this way, forced to follow the rightness, and held accountable for his practices which have spread confusion, encouraged disobedience and created cracks among the group."
SOHR sources reported earlier this morning, that a security group of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham encircled the house of the prominent commander "Abu Malek al-Talli" in Idlib city and arrested him, at orders by the HTS general commander "Abu Mohammad al-Julani".
Jamal Zayniyah, al-Talli’s real name, had defected from Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham on April 7, 2020, then he formed a jihadi group and joined the jihadi operation room of "Fa’ethbato". The jihadi commander is also known for his rejection of the agreements between Russia and
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
on the "de-escalation zone", as he announced in October 2018.
Al-Talli had kidnapped several nuns in Maaloula in Rif Dimashq, before he released them in March 2014, following a deal in which he received large sums of money. It worth noting that al-Talli’s son was assassinated on October 25, 2017. SOHR reported at that time that Abu Malek al-Talli’s son was rubbed out by unknown assailants, while he was traveling on a highway in the countryside of Idlib city.
| The Times of Israel cleans that up considerably: |
The activists said a big force from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, raided the house of Jamal Zeina, better known as Abu Malek al-Tali, on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Idlib and detained him.
Al-Tali was behind major operations for the group that used to be known as Nusra Front, including the December 2013 kidnapping of 12 Orthodox nuns from Maaloula, a Christian village in Syria that insurgents controlled for a few months during the country’s nine-year conflict. Nusra Front exchanged the nuns four months later for women held in Syrian government prisons.
In 2014, militants under al-Tali’s command briefly stormed the Lebanese border town of Arsal and captured more than two dozen Lebanese soldiers and policemen. Nusra Front exchanged the troops it was holding with prisoners held in Lebanon.
Al-Tali, a Syrian citizen, is known to be a hardliner who is opposed to a truce reached in March between Russia and Turkey that stopped a Syrian government offensive on Idlib province, the last remaining rebel stronghold in the country. The three-month offensive under the cover of Russian airstrikes killed hundreds and sent a million people fleeing toward the Turkish border.
Al-Tali defected in April and set up his own group that became close to al-Qaeda-linked Horas al-Din group, Arabic for “Guardians of Religion.” Horas al-Din are hardcore al-Qaeda elements who broke away from HTS.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said al-Tali defected from HTS in April, adding that he had personally acquired large sums of money from the deal to release the nuns.
The Shaam Newtork, an activist collective, said al-Tali and other former HTS commanders have been opposed to recent policies adopted by the group’s top commander, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who has been taking cautious steps since Turkey sent thousands of soldiers into Idlib earlier this year.
Al-Tali’s son, Orwa, was shot dead in 2017 in an apparent internal feud between militants in northwest Syria.