French jihadist Oumar Diaby detained by rival group in Syria

French jihadist Oumar Diaby, alias Omar Omsen, suspected of having convinced many French people to join Syria, was arrested in this country by a group linked to Al-Qaeda, AFP learned Monday (August 31) from concordant sources.

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In a statement authenticated Monday by several jihadism experts contacted by AFP, the Firqatul Ghuraba group indicates that " Omar Omsen, as well as three other brothers, were arrested after responding to the summons to a court " by the Hayat Tahrir group al-Sham (HTS). The press release states that it does not have a clear explanation as to the reasons for this arrest.

Expert Aymenn Jawad Tamimi confirmed to AFP the authenticity of the document, adding that he had obtained information directly from HTS on the arrest of the four men. In Paris, a source close to the case indicated that Omsen had indeed been arrested by the HTS, adding that his exact fate remained uncertain.

" Those who insulted the prophet were executed "

A former Franco-Senegalese delinquent who became a preacher in particular via the internet, Diaby worked in 2012 in a hallal snack in Nice (south-eastern France) before joining Syria in 2013 where he took the head of a jihadist brigade made up of young people. French, for the most part from the Nice region like him. Author of propaganda videos, he proclaimed himself an imam. In September 2016, the United States had called him an “ international terrorist ”. Given for dead, he reappeared in a shoot broadcast by France 2 in 2016.

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If he is not directly suspected of having organized attacks, Omar Omsen had approved the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 in Paris, whose trial opens in Paris on Wednesday. “ Those who insulted the prophet were executed. We had to do what the Kouachi brothers did. I would have liked to be chosen to do that, ”he told France 2.

" Today, it is estimated that nearly 70 people belong to its brigade, located in northwestern Syria, on the border with Turkey, " said Jean-Charles Brisard, director of the Center for Terrorism Analysis (CAT ), quoted Monday in the daily Nice-Matin . " He is someone whose longevity is based on fragile balances with alliances of circumstances that he forges with groups ", he adds. " He is maintaining himself in a rather precarious manner, these alliances causing him to be stopped from time to time at the discretion of internal dissensions ".

In this case, the press release announcing his arrest, announced on Sunday by France 24 journalist and jihadism expert Wassim Nasr, evokes a dispute with the Islamic Party of Turkestan (PIT), a rival jihadist group whose members mostly belong to China's Uyghur Muslim minority.