German rapper turned Islamist militant killed in Syria suicide attack

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 in an eastern province.

German rapper Deso Dogg (left) who went to fight in Syria with other Islamist militants. Facebook/dapd

BEIRUT // A German former rapper who joined jihadists fighting in Syria has been killed in a suicide bombing carried out by rival fighters.

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 on Sunday in an eastern province.

He was a member of the 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 Islamist militant group that is Al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate.

Messages posted on militant internet forums announced his death.

“The Islamic nation is bleeding with the news of the martyrdom of the jihadist fighter, brother Abu Talha Al Almani. May he be accepted by God,” one message read.

“His death is the result of a suicide bombing carried out by the traitorous soldiers of (Nusra chief Abu Mohammed Al) Jolani against a house in which a number of ISIL brothers were staying,” it added.

The 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, 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 Islamist and moderate rebel 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.

* Agence France-Presse