French jihadist Omar 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, we learned on Monday from concordant sources.
In a statement authenticated on Monday by several jihadism experts, the Firqatul Ghuraba group indicates that "Omar Omsen, as well as three other brothers, were arrested after responding to the summons to a court" from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (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 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 familiar with the matter indicated that Omsen had indeed been arrested by the HTS, adding that his exact fate remained uncertain.
Former Nice delinquent
A former Franco-Senegalese delinquent who became a preacher notably via the Internet, Diaby worked in 2012 in a hallal snack bar 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.
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.
70 people would be enrolled in his brigade
"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 this 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".
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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 belong mainly to China's Uyghur Muslim minority.
#France Omar #Omsen + 3 French jihadists were arrested around noon by #HTS during a meeting to settle a minor conflict with members of the Islamic Party of Turkestan #Syria #Idleb
- Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) August 29, 2020