An ISIS commander who claims to have lived in the U.S. has been killed, according to jihadis in the Middle East.
Abu Muhammad Al-Amriki, who gained notoriety last February when he appeared in a video blasting al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, was a high-ranking figure within ISIS. The name "Al-Amriki" means "American."
While reports of his death have circulated before, the latest claim is considered "far more reliable" because it originated from jihadis "familiar with ISIS activities in Syria and Iraq" themselves, global security firm and NBC News counterterrorism consultant Flashpoint Intelligence said. NBC News could not independently verify the reports.
Al-Amriki claimed to be an American but it was not clear if he was actually a U.S. citizen. "Al-Amriki has a heavy accent when speaking English and might have only spent a short amount of time in the U.S. or migrated there at an older age," Flashpoint noted, adding that he "rose up the ranks of the group very quickly."
It was not immediately clear when or where he died.
Last year, Douglas McCain of San Diego, California, was killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria.
NBC News revealed how McCain, 33, who called himself "Duale ThaslaveofAllah" on Facebook, went from would-be rapper who loved basketball in a blue-collar area of Minnesota to dying in the civil war thousands of miles from home.
In September, the FBI's director said that U.S. believes there are about a dozen Americans fighting alongside extremist groups in Syria.
