BEIRUT: As a cease-fire in Arsal paused fighting Friday, the local commander of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham – previously known as the Nusra Front – was poised to leave Lebanon with his fighters to Syria’s Idlib. Abu Malek al-Talleh, the group’s commander in the Qalamoun Mountains, has a history of involvement with extremist ideology and militant groups.

According to a former mediator who The Daily Star independently confirmed met him shortly after the group overran Arsal in 2014, Talleh was imprisoned in the Syrian regime’s notorious Sednaya prison for 13 years due to extremist activity. He was reportedly released in 2011 following an amnesty issued by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Then, Al-Akhbar daily reported in September 2014 that Talleh was one of the founding members of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in Homs.

Talleh is thought to have fled the outskirts of Homs after Hezbollah and Syrian regime forces captured the group’s positions, holing up in the Qalamoun Mountains near the Lebanese border in 2014.

Once there, Talleh sought to unite opposition groups in the Qalamoun region under a single umbrella to better confront Syrian army troops and their allies, including Hezbollah.

Jabhat Fatah al-Sham gained prominence in 2013 after kidnapping 13 nuns from a monastery in the historic town of Maaloula on Dec. 3.

Qatari and Syrian mediation managed to secure the release of the 13 Greek Orthodox nuns on March 10, 2014, at an undisclosed price. More was reportedly paid in exchange for the release of 16 Lebanese servicemen in 2015. Estimates place Talleh’s money from ransoms at nearly $30 million.

The former mediator, who said he met Talleh under mortar fire in order to broker a cease-fire between Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and the Lebanese Army, told The Daily Star that the commander enjoyed wide respect from the forces under his control.

“He has a strong charisma, a presence when he talks, despite not being very tall,” the former mediator said. “His words are weighed as he speaks, and he always wears an explosive vest, I saw him wearing it myself.”

The former mediator said he recalled every one of the fighters respecting Talleh and his orders.

Talleh, in his 50s, is believed to be from the Syrian town of Tall.

Under his leadership, his group of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham claimed responsibility for a dual suicide attack in Tripoli’s impoverished Jabal Mohsen neighborhood on Jan. 10, 2015. The attack was reportedly carried out by two men who had fought under Talleh’s command on Arsal’s outskirts.

The negotiator also said that the commander was both calm and pragmatic, agreeing to demands that allowed for the battle with the Army to pause for a time and for Nusra to withdraw to the outskirts of Arsal where they have been ever since.

“I asked him to hand over the [captured] soldiers, and he handed three of them over. He was the one whose order stands, while there were other commanders in charge of groups of fighters, they all listened to him,” the source said.

The source added that at the time he entered the town of Arsal he saw hundreds of fighters standing on the streets with both primitive and advanced weaponry that they had seized from regime bases and depots.