American journalist and filmmaker Lindsey Snell revealed that Mohammad Qanatri, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Syrian Embassy in Washington, was a member of the Nusra Front and participated in the group that kidnapped and detained her in the Aleppo countryside in 2016. She provided this testimony alongside a video recording from that period.
Snell presented a recording of an interview she conducted with Qanatri a few days before her abduction. In the video, he appeared masked in front of a Nusra Front banner, speaking about the group’s vision and the differences between it and the “ISIS” organization.
My interview with the Syrian chargé d’affaires to the US back when he was a member of Jabhat al-Nusra. pic.twitter.com/g0NSaH1WUp
“I met Mohammad Qanatri for the first time in July 2016, when his group, Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, kidnapped me,” Snell said. She added that prior to her kidnapping, he had agreed to be interviewed on the condition that his face be concealed, asserting that she was able to identify him by his eyes, voice, and manner of speaking.
According to Snell, Qanatri spoke during the interview about Jabhat al-Nusra’s goal to establish a state in Syria governed by Sharia law. He later transitioned to managing political affairs under Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), then to institutions of the Salvation Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leading up to his appointment as Chargé d’Affaires at the Syrian Embassy in Washington at the beginning of 2026.
A Journalistic Journey That Ended in Kidnapping
Snell explained that she entered Syria in mid-July 2016 on her seventh journalistic trip since 2014, aiming to document the impact of airstrikes on civilians, hospitals, and rescue teams in the countrysides of Aleppo and Idlib.
During that period, she stayed with the Thuwar al-Sham faction in the town of Kafrmael (Kfar Aleppo) in the western Aleppo countryside—an area under heavy security influence of Jabhat al-Nusra. She stated that her fixers/escorts had obtained permission from the Front allowing her entry and filming, which initially gave her a sense of safety.
Over three days, she documented hospitals, medical personnel, and rescue teams, met children injured by airstrikes, and conducted the interview with Qanatri that she recently republished.
Details of Detention and Escape
Snell relates that on the night of July 20, 2016, Jabhat al-Nusra arrested the journalist fixer working with her, before setting out to search for her. After the Thuwar al-Sham faction attempted to hide her in a house, about ten armed men managed to reach her and take her away, led by a person known by the kunya “Abu Taroub,” who accused her of working with American institutions and ordered her interrogation on suspicion of espionage.
She added that she was initially held in an isolated house, where she was interrogated regarding her journalistic work, religion, and connections within Syria. About a week later, she was transferred to a prison she described as cave-like, where she spent two days in solitary confinement.
As battles intensified around Aleppo, she was moved to a house where the wives and children of Jabhat al-Nusra members were residing. There, according to her account, she managed to gain the trust of some of the women and use their phones to send messages to her husband to arrange an escape plan.
She stated that she contacted a person linked to the Ahrar al-Sham faction and agreed that he would wait for her on a motorcycle near a road. After taking the cat that accompanied her out of the house to use as a pretext in case her absence was discovered, she walked through an olive grove for about ten minutes until she reached the person who helped her escape.
She noted that she hid for two days near the Syrian-Turkish border before crossing into Turkey, where Turkish authorities arrested her on August 6, 2016, on charges of entering a military zone. She spent 67 days in Turkish prisons, including 17 days in solitary confinement, before being deported to the United States on October 12 of the same year.
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version… Read the Arabic version:Click here
