First Ever American Suicide Bomber: Smiling American bomber in Syria

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2014-07-27/AP/Images/Syria-08c49.jpg?uuid=CJMRDhU2EeSsVnc-VKZZBg" data-low-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_400w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2014-07-27/AP/Images/Syria-08c49.jpg?uuid=CJMRDhU2EeSsVnc-VKZZBg" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2014-07-27/AP/Images/Syria-08c49.jpg?uuid=CJMRDhU2EeSsVnc-VKZZBg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">This undated frame grab from video provided by the Manara al-Bayda, the media arm of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, on Friday, July 25, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows American suicide attacker Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, who was known among rebels as Hurayra al-Amriki. Abu-Salha is the first American to carry out a suicide attack in Syria’s civil war. (Manara al-Bayda/Associated Press)</span></span></div> <div class="pb-sig-line hasnt-headshot has-0-headshots hasnt-bio is-not-column" style="padding-bottom: 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="pb-byline" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;">By Associated Press</span> <span class="pb-timestamp" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;">July 26 at 10:30 PM</span></span></div> <article><div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BEIRUT — An al-Qaida-linked group fighting in Syria has released video of the first American to carry out a suicide attack in the country’s civil war, showing him smiling and saying he looked forward to going to heaven.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Nusra Front released the new video late Friday showing American citizen Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, 22, with other fighters before the May 25 attack that targeted several army positions at the same time. It said two of the other three suicide attackers in the assault in the government-held northwestern city of Idlib were from foreign countries, including one who was identified as being from the Maldives.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Abu-Salha appears smiling in the video and speaks in broken Arabic.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I want to rest in the afterlife, in heaven. There is nothing here and the heart is not resting,” Abu-Salha says. “Heaven is better. When people die they either go to heaven or hell. There is happiness beyond explanation.”</span></div> <div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The video, released by Nusra Front’s media arm, al-Manara al-Baydha, was posted on jihadi websites. It corresponded with Associated Press reporting about the attack and Abu-Salha.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Opposition forces previously identified the American who carried out the bombing as Abu Hurayra al-Amriki and said he was a U.S. citizen. The name al-Amriki means “the American” in Arabic.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s unknown how many people were killed in the bombing. Opposition rebels with the Nusra Front said Abu-Salha’s truck was laden with 16 tons of explosives to tear down the al-Fanar restaurant, a gathering site for Syrian troops. The other suicide attackers targeted nearby army positions.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb" style="background-position: 123px -398px; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 250px; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_6__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_6" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_6" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Abu-Salha grew up in Florida and attended several colleges before dropping out and moving abroad.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thousands of foreign fighters have come to Syria from around the world to fight against President Bashar Assad’s forces after the uprising against his government began three years ago.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The war, which began in 2011, has since taken on strong sectarian overtones, pitting a Sunni-led insurgency that includes al-Qaida-inspired extremist groups against a government dominated by Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Syria’s uprising began with peaceful protests in March 2011 but escalated into an armed revolt when government forces launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent. The conflict has killed at least 170,000 people, nearly a third of them civilians, according to activists. Nearly 3 million Syrians have fled the country.</span></div> <div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Saturday, a car bomb exploded in a northern Syrian town near the Turkish border, killing and wounding a number of people.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Aleppo Media Center said the car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in the town of Azaz. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the car blew up near a gas station in Azaz. The Observatory said the blast killed at least four people and wounded several others while the AMC said it killed and wounded a number of people without offering specific figures.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Observatory and an Idlib-based activist who goes by the name of Asad Kanjo said another car blew up in the northern village of Atmeh near the Turkish border. The Observatory said the blast killed two people. Kanjo said the blast occurred near a market and close to a children’s hospital, though it was not affected.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_2" style="background-position: 123px -398px; clear: both; float: none !important; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_9__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_9" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_9" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Observatory also said the Syrian troops recaptured the Shaer gas field in the central province of Homs a week after fighters from the Islamic State group captured it and killed dozens of soldiers. Syrian state television confirmed that troops recaptured the field, saying that “large numbers of Islamic State terrorists were wiped out.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Observatory also said a missile shot down the helicopter Friday night over a neighborhood of Aleppo known as Camp Nairab. Camp Nairab is adjacent to the Nairab military airport southeast of the city, where government aircraft take off to carry out attacks in northern Syria.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Assad’s forces use helicopters to drop barrel bombs — crude explosives that have killed thousands of people and caused widespread destruction, especially in Aleppo.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Observatory and an Aleppo-based activist who goes by the name Abu Saeed Izzedine said the helicopter crash killed four people, including a child. The Observatory said three of the dead were the helicopter’s crew members.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, has seen heavy fighting since rebels seized part of the city in 2012.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Observatory also reported Saturday that the number of soldiers killed over the past few days in a northern military base in Raqqa that was overrun by the extremist Islamic State group has risen to 85. It said the fate of 200 other soldiers is still unknown.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The monitoring group, which relies on a network of activists inside the country, said Islamic State fighters have executed and paraded the bodies of “tens” of soldiers in Raqqa, the only provincial capital in rebel hands.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_3" style="background-position: 123px -398px; clear: both; float: none !important; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_8__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_8" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/middle_east_8" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Amateur videos posted online by activists showed more than a dozen beheaded bodies in a busy square said to be in Raqqa. Some of the heads were placed on a nearby fence, where at least two headless bodies were crucified. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span></div> </article></div>

First Ever American Suicide Bomber: Smiling American bomber in Syria

This undated frame grab from video provided by the Manara al-Bayda, the media arm of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, on Friday, July 25,...

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