Abu Musa, the local commander of a Syrian rebel group affiliated to al-Qaeda, was freed on Sunday after being held by Kurdish forces during a power struggle between rival organisations fighting President Bashar al-Assad, activists said to Reuters.

 However, the pro-opposition activists gave conflicting reports of how the commander in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border had come to be free.

 The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said al-Qaeda rebels had exchanged 300 Kurdish residents they had kidnapped for the local head of their group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS).

 Other activist groups challenged this account, saying religious fighters had freed Abu Musaab by force, with no Kurdish hostages released.