Mustafa Setmariam Nasar

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Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, also transliterated as Mustafa Sitmaryam Nassar (Arabic: مصطفى ستمريم ناصر), (born ca. 1958 in Aleppo, Syria) is a suspected Al-Qaeda member and writer. He is also known by his nom de guerre Abu Musab al-Suri (or as-Suri, which is how it is pronounced) and by his nom de plume Umar Abd al-Hakim^[1]^[2]. Al-Suri is Arabic for the Syrian.

Nasar was captured in Pakistan in 2005, but exactly where and when is disputed^[2]. He is currently in American custody, possibly in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He is also wanted (as a witness) in Spain^[2]^[3] in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and wanted in Syria^[3].

Nasar is the suspected planner in the 2005 transport bombings in London.

Nasar has ginger hair, green eyes, and a light complexion. He fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and later worked with the Muslim Brotherhood until the government of Hafez Assad cracked down on that organization. He met Osama bin Laden either there or later in bin Laden's temporary exile to Sudan.

Nasar spent time in Spain, marrying his wife Elena (Moreno), a Spanish convert to Islam, which gave him Spanish citizenship. They have two children. Among his associates there were Imad Eddin Yarkas (Abu Dahdah), head of al Qaeda's Madrid cell, who has since been captured and sentenced for involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

He first moved to London in 1995 along with Elena and Zougam, fleeing Spain because of suspicions he was involved in the 1995 Islamist terror bombings in France. For a time Nasar edited Al Ansar, a magazine with ties to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. His best known piece is the 1600-page book The International Islamic Resistance Call which appeared on the Internet in 2004.^[3] He has been associated with the militant cleric Abu Qatada, believed to be a major Al Qaeda political figure previously imprisoned in the UK's Belmarsh Prison. In 1997 Nasar opened a company called Islamic Conflict Studies Bureau with Mohamed Bahaiah, an Al Qaeda courier. After 1998 Nasar spent some time in Afghanistan running a terrorist training camp and working closely with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be the main Al Qaeda leader of the insurgency in Iraq.

A close Nasar aide, Amer Azizi, is known to have met September 11 organizers Mohammed Atta and Ramzi bin al-Shibh in Tarragona, Spain weeks before the attacks.

In September 2003, Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon indicted 35 members of the Madrid cell for its role in the September 11 attacks, including Nasar. In November 2004, the United States Department of State named Nasar a Most Wanted Terrorist and offered a reward of US$5 million for information about his location^[4].