Dutch police on Tuesday (May 21st) arrested a Syrian asylum seeker suspected of committing war crimes as a commander of al-Nusra Front (ANF), AFP reported.

ANF now forms the core of Tahrir al-Sham, an extremist alliance in Syria.

The 47-year-old, identified only by his nom de guerre, Abu Khuder, was detained in Kapelle in the south-western Netherlands, a federal prosecutor said.

"The man is accused of participating in the armed struggle as a commander of a terrorist ANF battalion," the prosecutor said in a statement.

He was held "on suspicion of committing war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria", the statement said, and had fought in a battalion known as Ghurabaa Mohassan.

He has lived in the Netherlands since 2014 and was granted a temporary asylum permit, the statement said.

Police searched the suspect's house and recovered documents, a computer and a smartphone, it said, adding that he was due to appear in court on Friday.

He was arrested based on information provided by German police, where six homes belonging to suspected members of the same battalion were raided, it added.

German police "provided witness testimonies against the suspect", the Dutch prosecutor said.