express.co.uk
archive.li
>A commander based with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance said German citizen Mohammed Haydar Zammar was in custody and under interrogation.
>But now the Pentagon has confirmed the violent jihadist was captured more than a month ago.
>.Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said: “We can confirm that Mohammad Haydar Zammar, a Syrian-born German national, was captured more than a month ago by SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) partners as part of their ongoing operations to defeat ISIS inside Syria.
>“We are working with our SDF partners to obtain additional details.”
>The 9/11 Commission report said Zammar was an “outspoken, flamboyant Islamist” who extolled “the virtues of violent jihad”.
>Zammar reportedly took credit for influencing Ramzi Binalshibh, who is accused of wiring money to the September 11 hijackers and passing information to al-Qaeda operatives.
>He is also said to have influenced Mohammed Atta, who led the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001.
>US officials have said there are hundreds of foreign fighters and thousands of Syrian Islamic State militants in SDF custody.
>The Syrian Democratic Forces military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), are an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria.
>German newspaper Bild, citing Kurdish sources, said Zammer was in a prison run by the YPG militia.
>Syrian-born Zammar moved to Germany in 1971, and by the late 1990s, was a prominent Islamist based in Hamburg.
>The 9/11 Commission Report described him as “a well-known figure in the Muslim community (and to German and US intelligence agencies by the late 1990s)”, having fought in Afghanistan and “relished any opportunity to extol the virtues of violent jihad”.
