K. Albanian who committed gruesome crimes "is dead"

K. Albanian who committed gruesome crimes "is dead"

According to the Kurdish outlet, Muhaxheri died of the wounds sustained in clashes with Kurdish defense forces, Albanian language media in Priština have said.

The 24-year-old from the town of Kačanik in Kosovo first "joined Jihad" in Syria and committed brutal crimes there. In late July he posted photos on Facebook showing him holding a Syrian teenager, preparing to decapitate him with a knife, and then holding the severed head in his hands, posing in front of the camera.

In an interview published by the Tirana daily Dita on August 2, he stated that he "did nothing more than what members of the KLA did during the war (in Kosovo)."

The media in Priština at the time reported that the extremist justified the execution of the 19-year-old Syrian by saying that "such penalty is prescribed in the Koran," and that the victim was "a spy."

Previously, Muhaxheri, described as the best-known Albanian member of the Islamic State organization, was in the media in June when he published a photograph of himself "burning the Kosovo passport."

According to the media in Kosovo, Muhaxheri called himself the leader of Albanian fighters who joined the extremist group. Before joining Islamic extremists in the Middle East, he worked for American KFOR forces in Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, and for NATO in Afghanistan.

During the Ramadan of 2013 he participated in the activities of the Islamic Community of Kosovo, which is "confirmed by several photos," said the reports.

Last year he was allegedly elected commander of the Albanians belonging to "a breakaway wing of rebels against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad - but not the one that seeks democracy in Syria, but the one that sees Syria as a country to be ruled by the Sharia law and groups close to Al-Qaeda."

However, a person who returned to Kosovo from the war in Syria told the Albanian language daily Express that Muhaxheri was not a commander, but "only provided guarantees for Albanians who joined the jihadists."

The local media in Priština also said on August 15 that an international arrest warrant would be issued against him, and that Interpol "accepted the demand of Kosovo authorities to be involved in the search system."

The Basic Court in the town of Uroševac in Kosovo had charged Muhaxheri on suspicion of that he committed terrorist activities and organized a group to wage war in Syria and Iraq.

According to the Priština media, in the last few years, more than 200 Kosovo Albanians "went to Jihad," to fight on the side of radical Islamic groups.