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1. YPG has captured German Jihadi veteran Mohammed Haydar Zammar, arguably the highest profile German within ISIS. An Afghan Jihad veteran who knew OBL, he was close to Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 terrorists and a mentor for the Hamburg cell.https://www.bild.de/bild-plus/politik/ausland/isis-terroristen/zammar-syrien-55422404,la=de.bild.html …
2. Zammar was born in Aleppo in 1961 and moved to Hamburg as a kid. In 1982, he became a German citizen. In Hamburg he met German-Syrian AQ financier Mamoun Darkazanli. In the 90ies, Zammar went to AfPak and to an AQ camp in Jalalabad before joining Mujahideen in Bosnia in 1995.pic.twitter.com/WKSzEsTDIT
3. In 1996, he returned to Afghanistan after a personal invitation from OBL. Back in Hamburg, he preached Jihad to his Islamist followers, among them 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta as well as Marwan al-Shehhi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mounir al Motassadeq and Said Bahaji.pic.twitter.com/U2XaTrpoRI
4. Zammar was something like a spiritual mentor for the Hamburg cell and claimed to have introduced them to each other. It’s not clear if he knew about the planned attack. Six weeks after 9/11, Zammar flew to Morocco to divorce his second wife.pic.twitter.com/7Re6IZeDCY
5. US authorities, who knew since 1999 that Zammar was in direct contact with a senior AQ operative, asked their German counterparts for info about him. German BKA passed the info to US, which prompted Moroccan police to arrest Zammar in Dec 2001 and hand him over to the CIA.
6. Zammar was transferred to Syria where he was incarcerated in the notorious Palestine Branch slaughterhouse. US officials handed over questions for Zammar to the Syrian Mukhabarat (same Mukhabarat that after 2003 facilitated the transfer of Jihadis to Iraq to fight US troops).
7. US informed then-ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger about the fate of German citizen Zammar in June 2002 and asked Berlin to keep this confidential. In Nov 2002 officials from BKA, BfV and BND interrogated Zammar in Damascus. Syrian authorities used his testimonies against him.
8. Then-minister of interior Schäuble said that the interrogation was lawful, despite Zammar stating that he was beaten by regime guards. Zammar was sentenced to death under the assumption that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sentence was later changed to 12 y prison.
9. In 2008, then-Foreign minister (and current president) Steinmeier testified before a parliamentary committee, telling MPs that German authorities didn’t know about the planned extraordinary rendition of Zammar in 2001, when Steinmeier was Head of the Chancellery.pic.twitter.com/Jz7H8kVZtJ
10. @GermanyDiplo said back then that they tried to get German citizen Zammar back to Germany. However, in late 2013, Zammar was freed in a prisoner exchange by Ahrar al-Sham.
11. Ahrar al-Sham and other Syrian opposition factions were fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham at this time, driving them out of Aleppo. But Zammar apparently didn’t join Ahrar.
12. On 20 Feb 2014, ISIS media wing al-Furqan released a new video from Halab province, which shows "the sons of the Islamic state as guests of the tribes."pic.twitter.com/z3rgN790cf
13. Some dozen ISIS members and Halab tribal leaders gathered to listen to a speech of (presumably) Abu Ali al-Anbari, the ISIS governor for Syria who was killed by US SOF in 2016.pic.twitter.com/ZEW5Ti1akC
14. In the audience below the ISIS flag sat Mohammed Haydar Zammar, listening to the calls for fight against the Syrian opposition.pic.twitter.com/uEN35KdTQl
15. It’s unclear if Zammar was already a member of ISIS then or if he joined during/after the gathering. The muzzle of an AK-style assault rifle is visible next to him.pic.twitter.com/AhBXXoK73q
16. A few months later it was clear that Zammar had joined ISIS. Not only did he defend ISIS, he also lamented about the "treachery" of Ahrar al-Sham‘s leader Hassan Abboud, the same group which freed him from Assad‘s prison.
17. Interestingly, Zammar used "al-Almani" in his kunya while he was with ISIS. When he was still in Germany, he tried to get rid off his Syrian citizenship, but Syria didn’t allow it.pic.twitter.com/G1VmA0d1Vm
18. It’s unclear what role he really had within ISIS. With his veteran status, his Syrian background and his personal contacts to OBL and the Hamburg cell he could have been within the most senior ISIS leadership ranks - or maybe he preferred to stay in the background.
19. As he is now in YPG detention, his fate is also unclear. German federal prosecutor has suspended his 2001 charge of support for a terror group after ten years. There will likely be new charges if he is extradited to Germany.
20. New German government announced they will revoke citizenship of German Jihadis who have other citizenships. As Zammar is also a Syrian citizen, he might lose his German citizenship - a controversial move, which in his case will probably be preferred by many in Berlin.
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