Abu Talha al-Almani

Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert (October 18, 1975 – October 16, 2015), also known by his stage name, Deso Dogg, was an Afro-German Jihadist and former rapper who is presumed to be dead. He ended his rap career after converting to Islam and taking the name Abou Maleeq. He left Germany for Egypt and eventually Syria, where he fought with jihadist anti-government forces in the Syrian Civil War, under the nom de guerre of Abu Talha Al-Almani (meaning Abu Talha the German). He was wounded during the fighting in the northern-Syrian town of Azaz in an air-strike conducted by the Syrian Army. In 2014 he gave his oath of allegiance to Islamist-Jihadi group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The United States Department of State added Cuspert to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists on 9 February 2015, and the United Nations Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee designated him on 11 February 2015. On 16 October 2015, Cuspert was reportedly killed by a US airstrike near Al-Raqqah, Syria. However, on June 15 2016, Bernd Palena, head of the Berlin State Office for the Protection of the Constitution said, "We have no evidence that the rapper known as "Deso Dogg" … died in a military action". The major German newspaper Bild ran the headline, "Protection of the Constitution contradicts the Pentagon, ISIS terrorist Deso Dogg lives!". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.