Will Berlin ask for repatriation of al-Qaeda leader held by YPG?

German citizen Mohammed Zammar, one of the surviving members of the team that organized the attacks in the US on 11 September 2011, and who is in YPG custody at the moment, wants to return to Germany.

Mohammed Zammar is originally from Syria. He occupied the German media and public opinion for a long while shortly after the terrorist attacks that shook the US on 11 September 2011. The connector member of the team that organized September 11 attacks, Zammar was also a close friend of Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attack.

Zammar was captured alive during a liberation campaign of the YPG against ISIS in Northern Syria.

Zammar, one of the 35 ISIS member German citizens held by the YPG, spoke to the weekly magazine Der Spiegel in the prison where he is held. He said he wanted to return to Germany.

Zammar argued that he was “not a bad person”, and called for German authorities to deal with his situation. According to Der Spiegel’s research, there exists an arrest warrant for Zammar as part of the investigation launched by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office against ISIS mercenaries. It is to be seen whether the Berlin government will take action for Zammar’s repatriation and trial in Germany.

WHO IS MUHAMMED ZAMMAR?

Mohammed Zammar from the Hamburg cell of al-Qaeda, just like Mohamed Atta, joined al-Qaeda in mid 1990’s. He visited the al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and received training there several times before he joined the civil war in Bosnia in 1995 as a “mujahid”.

With his mechanical engineer identity, Zammar stayed in Jordan, Turkey and Syria before the 11 September 2011 attacks. He is said to be one of the close friends of al-Qaeda leader Osame bin Ladin.

A prominent figure of the al-Qaeda in Germany, Zammar left Germany shortly after the September 11 attacks. However, the German intelligence service found his traces in Morocco and he was captured with the help of US intelligence CIA.

Zammar was handed over to Damascus regime in 2002 as he held Syrian citizenship in addition to German. He stayed in prison till 2013. Immediately after his release, ISIS’ websites published video footages showing Zammar, former al-Qaeda and new ISIS member, standing before the flags of ISIS.

ISIS members were calling Zammar “our pride” as he was one of the organizers of the September 11 attacks.