German authorities Wednesday arrested a Syrian national on war crimes charges, on suspicion of commanding a rebel militia in Aleppo that committed atrocities and plundered artifacts for sale, AFP reports.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the 41-year-old accused identified only as Ibrahim Al F. had been detained in the western region of Westphalia on a German arrest warrant.
"The accused is strongly suspected of treating people entitled to protection under international humanitarian law cruelly and inhumanely in the autumn of 2012 during the Syrian civil war," prosecutors said.
Ibrahim Al F. is believed to have led a 150-man district militia in Aleppo belonging to the Islamist rebel group Ghuraba al-Sham, then part of the Free Syrian Army, a loose coalition of opponents to President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Prosecutors said the militia, however, mainly pursued "self-serving aims".