Syrian troops surround French extremist's camp after girl is kidnapped

Senior security official says militant leader Omar Diaby refused to surrender and 'terrorised residents'

Foreign fighters and their families are still housed in camps in Syria, with their homelands in no rush to repatriate them. AFP

Syrian troops have surrounded a camp in the north-west of the country where a notorious French extremist and his followers were holed up, after the group was accused of kidnapping a girl.

Gunfire was reported at the site and Omar Diaby, a recruiter and propagandist for foreign fighters in Syria, "terrorised residents", a senior security official said.

Authorities say Diaby leads armed supporters in the Idlib countryside, near the border with Turkey. He is among thousands of extremists living in camps since the end of Syria's civil war, with their homelands in Europe in no rush to take them back.

Brig Gen Ghassan Bakir, a commander of Syrian internal security forces in Idlib, said authorities launched the operation at the camp after reports of "serious violations" by Diaby's group, the "latest of which was the kidnapping of a girl from her mother".

"We deployed forces to the camp, surrounded it and set up checkpoints at key locations to secure the entrances and exits," he said. Syrian forces tried to negotiate Diaby's surrender, Brig Gen Bakir added. "He refused, fortified himself inside the camp, prevented civilians from leaving, began firing, provoked security forces and terrorised residents."

Brig Gen Bakir also accused Diaby of using civilians as human shields. It was not clear how the confrontation ended.

Diaby, who was born in Senegal, has been under sanctions since 2012 and has been the subject of a French arrest warrant since 2014. He was known for producing propaganda videos that praised Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. He was linked to Al Nusra Front, the extremist group's branch in Syria.

A US sanctions listing in 2016 said Diaby led a group of about 50 French fighters in Syria and had come to the attention of the intelligence service in France. The listing said his propaganda videos "have been credited as the chief reason why so many French nationals have joined militant groups in Syria in Iraq".

Also known as Omar Omsen, he had been assumed dead in 2015 but re-emerged a year later, claiming the reports of his death were a ploy to allow him to travel to Turkey for an operation.

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, the former rebel group led by Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara, began life as a successor to Al Nusra Front. It cut ties with Al Qaeda and moderated its image, with Mr Al Shara praised this year by US President Donald Trump.