Kid freed by US is now Syria Qaeda boss
A jihadist financier who as a 15-year-old was the first al Qaeda captive to be released from US custody after the Afghan war is now allegedly the terrorist group’s “representative” in Syria.
Mohammed al-Anizi, a Kuwaiti national, was identified as the representative of al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a recent “des- ignation” in the US Treasury’s list of terrorists to be sanctioned. It said that he was a “terrorist facilitator” and had “provided extensive material and financial support” to the Al-Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s original affiliate in the Syrian conflict.
It also said he had been providing direct support to al Qaeda itself since 2007, financing and arranging travel and medical treatment for the group’s members. Among those to whom he channeled cash were his older brother Abdullah, also a US-designated terrorist.
Research by the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies revealed Mohammed al-Anizi to be the teenager who was at the center of an international dispute 16 years ago when he was captured in Afghanistan.
He had been taken to Afghanistan by his father, Hadi al-Anizi, a former colonel in the Kuwaiti police, a month after the 9/11 attacks.
His father was killed by a helicopter strike in the fighting, and Mohammed was seized by the Afghan Northern Alliance.
The alliance — the NATObacked anti-Taliban forces — handed Mohammed over to the United States.
His release was organized by the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheik Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who is now the country’s ruler.