“Brother, I call you to Jihad. This is where you will find freedom. You can really live here. It’s fun here. Jihad is a lot of fun!” So said German rapper-turned-terrorist Denis Cuspert in a 2013 video. Last week, those words came back to haunt him, if only briefly. He was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria last week, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed Thursday.
Cuspert — who went by the name Deso Dogg as a rapper and Abu Talha Al-Almani as a terrorist — joined the Islamic State in 2012 after his rapping career in Berlin went south and he started suffering from psychological problems. Cuspert was not considered a high-value target, and the Oct. 16 strike near Raqa was not specifically targeted at him, according to a defense official.
“Cuspert was a foreign terrorist fighter and operative for ISIL who used social media to take advantage of disaffected youth and potential Western recruits,” Defense Department spokeswoman Elissa Smith said in statement.
Smith further said Cuspert threatened President Barack Obama and U.S. and German citizens and encouraged ISIS supporters across the world to carry out attacks. He was once an up-and-coming rapper in Germany, and a look at his lyrics reveals a violent mind long before joining ISIS.
“Welcome to my world full of hate and blood,” the song “Wilkommen in Meiner Welt” starts. “In a world where you do not know what the next day brings children’s souls weep softly when the black angels sing.”
This report, by Jacob Bojesson, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
