Former rapper and ISIS militant Deso Dogg, who has been listed as a war criminal by Germany, has now been blacklisted by the United States as a global terrorist, after he appeared in an Islamic State (ISIS) video holding a severed head.
The 39-year-old, who is also a convicted criminal, was designated by the US State Department as part of the initiative of governments worldwide to crackdown on foreign members of the extremist group,a McClatchy report said.
Deso Dogg, whose real name is Denis Cuspert, joined the Islamic State in 2012 and since then has appeared in several ISIS videos including a beheading clip released in November, in which he is seen holding a severed head.
Berlin-born Cuspert, after converting to Islam, now goes by the nom de guerre Abu Talha al Almani, meaning "Abu Talha the German."
Deso Dogg has of late become one of the most notorious foreign fighters for ISIS. The militant group that has a high active social media cell, often has used Deso Dogg as its poster boy for recruitment purposes.
"Cuspert is emblematic of the type of foreign recruit [ISIS] seeks for its ranks – individuals who have engaged in criminal activity in their home countries who then travel to Iraq and Syria to commit far worse crimes against the people of those countries," the State Department said.
The German authorities have charged Cuspert for war crimes for committing atrocities in Iraq and Syria. He faces life sentence in Germany for his crimes.
