Among the roughly 150 regime detainees released in the swap for 13 kidnapped Syrian nuns are some rebel fighters; the Lebanese negotiator said the Al Nusrah Front had first demanded the release of 1,000 prisoners. Mohammed Haydar Zammar, the al Qaeda recruiter who helped assemble the “Hamburg cell” that carried out the 9/11 attacks, is reportedly living in Aleppo after being freed last fall in a prisoner swap between Ahrar al Sham and the regime. In Aleppo, Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front clashed with regime forces in Shekh Najjar, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham fought against the Jabhat Al Akrad brigade and the Islamic Front near Menbej city. In Raqqah, an explosion at a hotel used as an ISIS base killed and wounded a number of ISIS fighters. The Islamic Front battled regime forces in Hama and in Deraa. ISIS, Al Nusrah, and the Islamic Front continued to clash with regime, NDF, and Hezbollah forces in Reef Dimashq.
