Denis Cuspert, a.k.a. "Deso Dogg" a.k.a. Abu Talha Al-Almani, the German rapper who made headlines last year when he was designated a "global terrorist" by the United States, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria on October 16.
A message posted on the Facebook page of a Raqqa resident on October 17 claimed Cuspert was killed in a pickup truck the day before by missiles fired by two coalition planes near a gas station in Hunaida on the road between Raqqa and al-Tabqa, according to Florian Flade, a German terrorism expert who has tracked Cuspert.
Cuspert would have turned 40 two days later.
Cuspert was named as a specially designated global terrorist by the State Department in February. The designation alleged he joined ISIS, also known as ISIL, in 2012 and had appeared in numerous videos on its behalf, including one in which he appeared holding a severed head.
Cuspert joined ISIS in 2013 following his conversion to Islam in 2010 when he retired from the rap industry. He had previously been involved in other militant Islamic activity.