Kurds Capture Extremist who Recruited Three 9/11 Attackers

Mohammed Haydar Zammar in Germany on October 3, 2001. (AP)
Mohammed Haydar Zammar in Germany on October 3, 2001. (AP)
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Kurds Capture Extremist who Recruited Three 9/11 Attackers

Mohammed Haydar Zammar in Germany on October 3, 2001. (AP)
Mohammed Haydar Zammar in Germany on October 3, 2001. (AP)

The Asayesh Kurdish security units detained Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a member of the so-called Hamburg Cell accused of helping to plan the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, announced the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish officials on Thursday.

Zammar, a Syrian-born German, was arrested in northern Syria and is now being interrogated by the security apparatus from the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in northern Syria.

The Hamburg terror cell is thought to have been an important operative in the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

In 2007, a Syrian court sentenced Zammar to 12 years in prison for being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was later transferred from Syria’s Saadneya prison to the central prison in Aleppo.

A Syrian opposition official told Asharq Al-Awsat he had met Zammar in jail.

“He spoke little and did not voice his positions. I learned later he had joined ISIS,” the official said.

In 2014, reports said Zammar was released as part of a “deal” reached between Damascus and extremist opposition factions. The deal stipulated the release of Zammar and five other extremists in exchange for detained Syrian regime officers.

His whereabouts remained unknown until the Observatory and Kurdish officials uncovered on Thursday that they had captured him and others.

Zammar is dubbed the “Syrian bear” for his immense size, weighing around 150 kilograms.

He has played a leading role in the 9/11 attacks.

The man is believed to have recruited from the mosques of Germany’s Hamburg some of the perpetrators of the New York attacks, including Mohammed Atta, Ziad al-Jarrah and Marwan al-Shahhi, who were sent to Afghanistan in 2008 before moving to the US to receive aviation training.



52 Palestinians Including Children Killed in Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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52 Palestinians Including Children Killed in Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said Saturday. Also, 24 others were fatally shot on their way to aid distribution sites.

The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr's Hospital said. Another four people were killed in strikes near a fuel station, and 15 others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas infrastructure sites. The military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment on the civilian deaths.

The Hamas-led group killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

US President Donald Trump has said that he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were no signs of a breakthrough.