An American citizen with ties to al Qaeda carried out a suicide bombing mission in Syria, sources told CBS News.
U.S. officials say that a man pictured on Islamic websites frequented by terrorists displays a photograph of a smiling man with a beard, cuddling a cat, with this accompanying — translated — caption: “Cat lover Abu Hurayra Al Amriki performs an istishhadi bombing on Assad’s positions.”
But U.S. intelligence authorities say the man is an American citizen and is now going down in history as the first U.S. citizen suicide bomber to die while fighting on al Qaeda’s side in Syria, CBS said.
The photo is one of four recently released by the al Qaeda-tied group, Jabhat al-Nusra. All the photos show recent terrorist group jihadis, CBS said.
The group put out a statement saying he was killed in an attack mission in the northern region of Syria. It was just recently that al Qaeda vowed one of its upcoming attacks would come at the hands of an American, CBS said.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, say they’ve identified the American and know his real name, but haven’t released it yet. The FBI also said that a few dozen other Americans are presently in Syria in the middle of the fighting.
SEE ALSO: First American jihadist may have carried out suicide bombing in Syria: report
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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