During the 1990s al-Suri coordinated closely with Abu-Musab al-Suri, a Spanish-Syrian jihadist. Together they worked to establish jihadi volunteer centers, training camps and various media groups in Afghanistan. While both men worked closely with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, they denied being members of al-Qaeda in a statement made in 1999.[4] Around the time of the statement, al-Suri had been operating mostly out of Turkey and fled to Afghanistan.[5]