A man connected to the September 11 assault on the United States, who was considered to have praised “violent jihad,” an acronym for the Islamic State, was captured in Syria by U.S.-backed forces more than a month ago, the Pentagon announced on Thursday.
“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,” Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces are an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria which, during the war, were allies of the U.S. and were armed and trained by the Pentagon.
“We are working with our SDF partners to obtain additional details,” Pahon said.
The 9/11 Commission report, a Congressional account on the 2001 attacks, said that Zammar was an “outspoken, flamboyant Islamist” who extolled “the virtues of violent jihad.”
Reuters wrote that Zammar had reportedly taken credit for influencing Ramzi Binalshibh, who is accused of wiring money to September 11 hijackers and passing information to al Qaeda operatives, and Mohammed Atta, who led the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.
“There are hundreds of foreign fighters and thousands of Syrian Islamic State militants in SDF custody,” a U.S. official said.
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defined the presidency of George W. Bush.
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