Umer Ahmed, a member of the Al Qaeda-backed Al Nusra terror group, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria, reports a correspondent.
A suicide bomber of Indian origin has died in Syria, making it the first time that an Indian fidayeen (suicide bomber) has been reported killed in global jihad.
Umer Ahmed, a member of the Al Qaeda-backed Al Nusra terror group, was killed recently in a suicide bombing at the Hama governorate in western-central Syria.
His death comes a few weeks after the ISIS sponsored Ansar-ul-Tawhid announced another Indian Anwar Bhatkal's death in Afghanistan. There were also reports that Abdul Majeed, a youth from Kalyan in Maharashtra, was killed in Iraq.
These reports are a grim reminder that Indians are becoming part of the global war launched by Al Qaeda and ISIS. Umer Ahmed's death comes in the wake of Al Qaeda's declaration to set up India operations.
Indian intelligence agencies are trying to find out more about Ahmed who is suspected to hail from Tamil Nadu. He is said to have gone off the radar a year-and-a-half ago and joined Al Qaeda after being impressed by its fight agaunst the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
At that point, the Al Qaeda-supported Al Nusra fought alongside the ISIS. After the split with ISIS, Ahmed apparently stayed on with Al Nusra.
Sources in the Indian intelligence agencies confirm that such a man has been killed, and point out that Al Nusra timed its announcement a couple of hours after Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's video proclaiming its Indian operations became public.
The announcement of Ahmed's death could be a ploy to impress Indian youth to join Al Qaeda, sources in the intelligence agencies point out.
Over 250 Indian youth, these sources say, are missing and suspected to have joined either ISIS or Al Qaeda.
Last week, four youth from Hyderabad were tracked down to Kolkata and brought back home. They are alleged to have left Hyderabad to join ISIS.
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