US air strike killed German ISIS rapper in Syria

A German rapper who joined the Islamic State group and publicly threatened President Barack Obama has been killed in a US air strike in Syria, according to the Pentagon.

Denis Cuspert, who called himself Deso Dogg, used to rap in Berlin before becoming one of the westerners who have gone to fight for ISIS.

“I can confirm that an October 16 strike near Raqa killed Denis Cuspert,” said US defence department spokeswoman Elissa Smith.

Cuspert joined ISIS in 2012 and went on to appear in numerous videos from the militant group, including one in November 2014 “in which he appears holding a severed head he claims belongs to a man executed for opposing ISIS”, the State Department had previously said.

Another defence official said Cuspert “was not considered a high-value target [and] we were not specifically targeting him”. He noted that other ISIS jihadists may have been hit.

Jihadist sources in April 2014 said Cuspert had been killed in Syria but they later retracted the claim. Cuspert, who later went by Abu Talha al-Almani, was listed as an al-Qaida supporter by the United Nations, reports AFP.

Cuspert was said to have pledged an oath of loyalty to ISIS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and was a chief recruiter of German fighters.

According to Smith, Cuspert threatened Obama and US and German citizens, and also encouraged western Muslims to carry out attacks in the name of Islamic State.

“Cuspert was a foreign terrorist fighter and operative for ISIS who used social media to take advantage of disaffected youth and potential western recruits,” Smith said.

ISIS prohibits music but singing is allowed and some of the jihadists’ grisly videos are set to a vocal soundtrack.