Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly Nusra Front, imprisoned Abu Al-Qassam al-Ordoni (previously vice leader to Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi), Sami al-Areidi (previously a Sharia judge for Jabhat al-Nusra and a close friend to Abu Muhammad al-Maqdissy), Abu Humam al-Souri (former military commander of Jabhat al-Nusra), and Abu Jalbeeb al-Ordoni (once a high-ranking commander in Jabhat al-Nusra).
Militant media groups reported that Al-Jolani had requested from the prisoners a meeting to resolve standing conflicts between them, especially that they are Al-Qaeda leaders in Syria and some of the closest companions to Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Opposition sources also said that the prisoners had gone to the meeting before news about there whereabouts vanished until Minhaj Institution confirmed their imprisonment.
The kid napping occurred after Sami al-Areidi published a statement regarding Nusra’s supposed separation from Al-Qaeda saying that Jolani had lied to Zawahiri. Areidi would consolidate his statement based on confirmations from Abu al-Qassam al-Ordoni