German Rapper-Turned-Terrorist Reported Dead in Syria

Local Editor

A German former rapper who joined terrorist fighting in Syria has been killed in a suicide bombing carried out by rival fighters, extremist sources and a monitor said Tuesday.

Denis Mamadou Cuspert, who rapped under the name Deso Dogg but took on the name Abu Talha al-Almani in Syria, was reported to have been killed in a suicide attack Sunday in an eastern province.

He was a member of the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" [ISIL] and was reportedly killed in a double suicide bombing carried out by al-Nusra Front, a rival extremist group that is al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate.

Messages posted on extremist Internet forums announced his death.

"His death is the result of a suicide bombing carried out by the traitorous soldiers of al-Nusra chief Abu Mohammed al- Jolani against a house in which a number of ISIL brothers were staying," it said.

The so-called "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights", a British-based monitoring group, also reported the suicide attack carried out on Sunday.
"Two members of al-Nusra Front blew themselves up the day before yesterday [Monday], killing 16 ISIL fighters," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Abdel Rahman said a fighter known as Abu Talha was among those killed in the attack in Deir Ezzor province near the boundary with Hasakeh province.

Since early January, ISIL has been in open combat with al-Nusra and other extremist and moderate armed groups, who accuse it of abuses against rival opposition fighters as well as civilians.

Both ISIL and al-Nusra have reportedly targeted each other with suicide attacks.
The role of al-Almani - Arabic for "The German" - in Syria attracted widespread attention and he appeared in multiple videos and photos promoting terrorism in Syria.

In September 2013, he was reported to have been wounded in a regime air strike on a home where he was staying.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team