1. Denis Cuspert left Germany in 2012 for Egypt and Libya, eventually going to Syria in 2013, where he fought with jihadist anti-government forces in the Syrian Civil War, under the nom de guerre of Abu Talha Al-Almani.
24 Facts About Denis Cuspert
1. 2.
Denis Cuspert was wounded during fighting in the northern-Syrian town of Azaz in an air-strike conducted by the Syrian Air Force.
3.
Denis Cuspert was born in Kreuzberg, Berlin on 18 October 1975.
4.
Denis Cuspert's father, Richard Luc-Giffard, was a Ghanaian national who had been deported before Cuspert was born.
5.
Denis Cuspert was later raised in Charlottenburg, Moabit and Schoneberg.
6.
Denis Cuspert's mother remarried a US Army officer with whom Cuspert had ongoing conflicts.
7.
Denis Cuspert had a troubled youth and spent some time in a juvenile detention center.
8.
Denis Cuspert was in a criminal gang called the "36 Boys", which was based in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
9.
Denis Cuspert quit Streetlife label in 2007, reportedly to keep his artistic freedom.
10.
Denis Cuspert announced that he would quit after this project because he felt disappointed and betrayed by many people in the German rap scene.
11.
Denis Cuspert declared his decision to convert in a public video.
12.
Denis Cuspert became a member of a radical Islamic group called Die Wahre Religion.
13.
Denis Cuspert said he was dropping his earlier name Deso Dogg in favor of the Islamic name Abou Maleeq.
14.
The public broadcaster Sudwestrundfunk said in a report that the "Islamist radical Denis C was being investigated for sedition".
15.
Denis Cuspert became involved with the Egyptian Austrian-born al-Qaeda affiliate Mohamed Mahmoud, who had founded the Global Islamic Media Front as well as the jihadist militant Salafist group Millatu Ibrahim, later banned by the German authorities.
16.
Denis Cuspert began using the nom de guerre of Abu Talha al-Almani.
17.
In September 2013 Denis Cuspert was reportedly injured in an air strike in Syria.
18.
Denis Cuspert reportedly took part in the First Battle of the Shaer gas field in July 2014 with IS forces against the Syrian Armed Forces.
19.
Denis Cuspert returned to the US a few months later, confessed, and cooperated with authorities, in return for a light two-year prison sentence.
20.
On 16 October 2015, the US Department of Defense informed media outlets that Denis Cuspert had been killed by a US airstrike near Raqqa, Syria.
21.
Denis Cuspert was reportedly killed in an airstrike during the Deir ez-Zor campaign in the town of Gharanij in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
22.
Denis Cuspert had allegedly fathered three children with three different women.
23.
Denis Cuspert later married Cuspert, and lived with him in Raqqa, Syria, then she came back to Germany, where she gave birth to her fourth child.
24.
Denis Cuspert's phone was recovered by Lebanese journalist Jenan Moussa, which led to an investigation of her relations with IS.