The brother of the head of al-Qaida is reported to have been captured by regime forces in Syria. Mohamed al-Zawahiri is said to have been seized in Deraa in the south-west where he was meeting opposition activists, according to Belfast Telegraph.

Rebel fighters insisted Mohamed al-Zawahiri was engaged on a humanitarian mission and had not been involved in violent acts. They also claimed that he had, in fact, proposed a local truce to enable aid to get through.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over as al-Qaida leader following the killing of Osama bin Laden, has declared that it is the duty of Muslims to take part in a jihad against the “pernicious, cancerous regime” of Bashar al-Assad and warned the opposition against depending on the West for help.

Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist rebel group with links to al-Qaida, has become increasingly powerful in the conflict, overshadowing the more moderate fighters, and its leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, is said to be in personal contact with Ayman al-Zawahiri. There is also evidence of groups of foreign volunteers, albeit not in large numbers, joining the uprising. Mohamed al-Zawahiri has, however, denied in the past that he wanted to get involved in the Syrian struggle.

Mohamed al-Zawahari is a former military commander of the Islamic Jihad movement, but has, he has stressed, turned away from violence. He claims to have been a conduit for talks between hardline Salafist groups in the Sinai and the Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government.

The reports of his presence in Syria have come from rebel factions but remain unconfirmed.