Posted by John Rosenthal

The Al-Qaeda recruiter who is reputed to have assembled the Hamburg Cell, which planned and largely carried out the 9/11 attacks, has been released in a prisoner exchange in Syria. His “liberators” are the rebels of Ahrar al-Sham, a major component of the so-called Islamic Front. The rebel coalition in northern Syria has sometimes been touted as a more “moderate” Islamist force worthy of Western support.

On Mohammed Haydar Zammar’s career and the circumstances of his release, see my new report on Al-Monitor here.