US knows man who recruited Sept 11 hijackers

WASHINGTON -- Investigators have identified the al-Qaeda operative who recruited Mohammed Atta and other Hamburg-based hijackers who took part in the September 11 terrorist attacks, The Washington Post said yesterday.

Mohammed Haydar Zammar, 41, a German citizen of Syrian origin, disappeared after leaving Hamburg for Morocco in October, but a US counterterrorism official suggested that he is in US custody or is being held in another country.

"Zammar is not walking the streets," said the official who requested anonymity.

According to German and US officials, Zammar also played a key role in linking Atta with al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan.

The suspect, the officials said, was a charismatic advocate at a Hamburg mosque of waging holy war against the West. Atta and others in the Hamburg-based group fell under his influence around 1997.

One or two years later, the US counterterrorism official said, Atta and company decided to "offer themselves" to al-Qaeda, adding that Zammar "played a very significant role", in the recruitment.

After the September 11 attacks, Zammar was quizzed and released by German police. He left Germany on October 27, a senior German official said.

Before September 11, Zammar was on a German watch list of suspected Muslim extremists.

Intelligence officials hope that by investigating Zammar's movements and tactics they can gain insight into how other al-Qaeda cells plan their attacks. -- Sapa-AFP