Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, hundreds of people (terrorists) from all over the world came to take part in the foreign-backed war. In addition to declared and non-declared support to the so called “rebels” with money and training, some even accuse intelligence services of supplying weapons and direct support.
Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki
Although American official sources claimed that about 50 Americans (covers both natural-born and naturalized citizens as well as those who have lived in the U.S.) are fighting in Syria, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, revealed that about 12,000 foreign fighters are involved in Syrian conflict. Local Syrian sources say the number is much higher.
Recently, the Syrian Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist organization linked to Al-Qaeda, has released via its social media a video of a US citizen named Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki (Abu Hurayra the American, real name Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha) who blew himself up in a suicide attack for jihad in Syria. US officials believe this to be the first US national to carry out a terror attack in the country.
The suicide bombing took place against Syrian army positions in Jabal al-Arbaa’in, Idlib province, according to AFP. Abu Sulayman al Muhajir, one of the main officials in the Al-Nusra Front, tweeted about the participation of an American man in the suicide bombing.
“Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki performed a martyrdom operation in Idlib, Jabal Al-Arba’een. May Allah accept him,” the tweet said, with a photo of a young, bearded and smiling Caucasian man holding a cat, as well as images of the bombing it said he had executed.
According to NBC News: the American officials, US law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the suicide bombing and said they have identified the American. They declined to release his identity or home town. While other Syrian sources related to the so called “rebels,” based in London, told NBC News that other jihadi tweets suggest the American was of Palestinian descent.
Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki (Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha)
The 17-minute video, posted online by Nusra Front’s media arm, al-Manara al-Baydha, is about ‘the life and death’ of Abu Hurayra, the 22-year-old American from Florida who appears smiling and saying: “I want to rest in the afterlife, in heaven. There is nothing here and the heart is not resting. Heaven is better. When people die they either go to heaven or hell. There is happiness beyond explanation.”
As Laith Alkhouri, an NBC News counterterrorism analyst told NBC, Al-Nusra Front revealed that Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki’s truck was laden with 16 tons of explosives to tear down a restaurant named the al-Fanar, which was purportedly a gathering point for the Syrian Army. The number and identities of the people killed in this bombing are still unknown or not released. The following video shows the explosion:
Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, the head of the National Security Division, said in an interview with ABC News on Monday 21 July: “The problem of foreign fighters going to Syria is a significant national security threat that we’re facing right now, it’s at the top of the agenda for the Department of Justice and U.S. government at large, but also for our European partners and others throughout the world.”