In June 2018, the Ebaa News Agency announced that HTS had arrested Saad al-Hunayti, a Jordanian scholar and friend of the Jihadist ideologue and cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, who had traveled to Syria in 2014 to mediate tensions between ISIL and al-Nusra, and later joined ISIL due to a lack of implementation of Sharia by al-Nusra,[10] until fleeing back to rebel held areas after a series of defeats by ISIL, he was arrested on the grounds of being affiliated with ISIL and allegedly orchestrating assassinations in Idlib. News of his arrest was condemned by Maqdisi and he demanded that HTS release Hunayti.[11][12][13]