MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — A German rapper Denis Cuspert, also known by his stage name as Deso Dogg, has been identified as one of the Islamic State (IS) jihadists in a video published by the extremist group in the internet, the Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday.
In the video, filmed over the summer but published only recently, the man is holding a gun and explaining in German that the victims have received the death penalty for fighting against the IS.
Thirty-nine-year-old Cuspert grew up in Berlin, and spent several years in prison for various offenses. According to Spiegel, the rapper converted to Islam and joined the Salafist movement by 2010 at the latest.
The Deutsche Welle states that the rapper, who now calls himself Abu Talha al-Amani, has personally sworn an oath of loyalty to the IS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in April.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control.
Hundreds of people have been killed by the IS, thousands have been forced to flee their homes amid fears of the group, which mainly targets ethnic and religious minorities.
Numerous foreign fighters from the European Union, the United States and Canada are believed to be fighting for the jihadist group.
According to the US State Department, about 12,000 foreigners have joined the extremists fighting against government forces in Syria since the start of the internal conflict in 2011.
