FIRST US CITIZEN TO CARRY OUT A SUICIDE ATTACK IN SYRIA
An al-Qaeda-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.
Al-Nusra Front released the new video on Friday showing American citizen Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, 22, with other fighters before the May 25 attack that targeted several army positions in the government-held city of Idlib in northwestern Syria.
It said two of the other three suicide attackers were from foreign countries, including one who was identified as being from the Maldives.
Abu-Salha appears smiling in the video and speaks in broken Arabic.
"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.''
The video, released by al-Nusra Front's media arm, al-Manara al-Baydha, was posted on self-proclaimed jihadi websites.
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