Berlin rapper turned Isis fighter killed in Syria (for third time)

AFP

19 January 2018

09:09 CET+01:00

https://www.thelocal.de/20180119/berlin-rapper-turned-isis-fighter-killed-in-syria-for-
third-time

Deso Dogg has been reported killed twice before, once by jihadist sources, once by the
Pentagon. A US-monitoring group is now claiming the elusive German rapper who went
to fight for Isis has been killed again.

A German rapper turned Islamic State fighter who reportedly married the FBI translator
hired to spy on him has been killed in an airstrike in Syria, a US-based monitoring group
has said.

Denis Cuspert, who performed under the stage name Deso Dogg, became one of the
extremist group's most famous Western fighters, appearing in numerous propaganda
videos including one that apparently pictured him with a man's severed head.

The German-Ghanaian was killed on Wednesday during an airstrike in the town of

Gharanij in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, said a statement from the pro-Isis Wafa' Media
Foundation translated into English by the SITE monitoring group.

The jihadist group also posted eight graphic photographs on the Telegram messaging app
that it said were of his bloody corpse, SITE said.

Cuspert's death has been reported before, including by the Pentagon which announced he
had been killed in an airstrike in Syria in October 2015. It later acknowledged he appeared
to have survived the attack.

Jihadist sources in April 2014 also said Cuspert had been killed in Syria but they later
retracted the claim.

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Daniela Greene, an FBI translator with "top secret" security clearance, allegedly sneaked
off to Syria in June 2014 to marry Cuspert after she grew attracted to the extremist while
spying on him, according to US court documents.

Greene, who was arrested on her return to the US less than two months after travelling to
Syria, pleaded guilty to "making false statements involving international terrorism" and
served a two-year prison sentence.

Cuspert had pledged an oath of loyalty to Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and was a
chief recruiter of German fighters.

US officials have said Cuspert had made threats against former US president Barack
Obama and US and German citizens, and had also encouraged Western Muslims to carry
out Isis-inspired attacks.

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