CNN has admitted that a man it showed being rescued from a Syrian jail may have provided a “false identity” amid claims he was a member of Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The man, found under a blanket in a prison in Damascus by the broadcaster’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward, claimed he had been arrested three months ago and interrogated about his phone contacts.

He gave his name as Adel Ghurbal and said he was taken from his home in the city of Homs to the Syrian capital by the intelligence services.

However, Verify-Sy, a Syrian fact-checking organisation, claimed that his real name was Salama Mohammad Salama and that he was a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence.

He managed several security checkpoints in Homs and was involved in theft, extortion and coercing residents into becoming regime informants, it claimed.

Verify-Sy also alleged he had killed civilians, detained or tortured numerous young men on fabricated charges, and taken part in military operations in 2014, when Assad’s forces seized Homs from Syrian rebels following a three-year siege.

Locals are said to have told the organisation that his imprisonment, which lasted less than a month, stemmed from a dispute over the profits from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.

A CNN spokesman told The Telegraph: “We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity. We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.”