An anti-Islamic State activist group posted an extremely graphic video online today of a beheading purportedly at the hands of the militant group that reportedly shows the first footage of a well-known German jihadist.
The group goes by the name Deir Ezzore is Being Slaughtered Silently, and according to the German news outlet Der Spiegel, the activists said the video was made by the Islamic State and was leaked before the militant group published it.
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During the two minute video unidentified individuals are seen beheading a man. The alleged German jihadist — who may be the one-time rapper called Deso Dogg — speaks in German, and is heard about one minute in saying, “That’s why we have the death penalty enforced against them.”
Deso Dogg is also known as Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert. Conflicting reports about his death have circulating since April 2014. He has also been linked to Al Hayat, the media arm of the Islamic State.
Another man can be heard later in the video speaking in Arabic and calling the dead individuals seen in the footage as “Shaitat dogs.” This refers to a tribe in Syria that has been reported to be fighting against the Islamic State as early as August. The date the video was shot is unclear.
Deir Ezzore is Being Slaughtered Silently has a similar name to another anti-Islamic State group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Slowly, which aims to make sure the world hears and sees what’s going on in the Syrian city it is named after. At the end of September, the group released footage inside the Islamic State’s caliphate, filmed in secret by a Syrian woman who hid a camera behind herniqab.
Later in the footage, in a speech in Arabic but subtitled in German, another man describes the dead as “Shaitat dogs,” a reference to a Syrian tribe whose fight against the Islamic State has been reported recently. The Shaitat uprising dates to August, a possible date for the footage seen here, judging from the clothing of those pictured.
