By Maxim Tamarov, news editor
Former Northeastern student Ahmad Abousamra was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list in 2013, and has a $50,000 bounty on his head, for allegedly heading the social media for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group.
According to an FBI press release, Abousamra left the US in 2006, after graduating with a degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts Boston. He made trips to Yemen and Pakistan for terrorism training prior to leaving the country.
“[Abousamra] fled shortly after being interviewed by the FBI,” Greg Comcowich, the FBI’s Boston media coordinator, said. “He was indicted a couple of years later [in 2009].”
Abousamra, 31, was born in France and is of Syrian descent. He holds citizenship in Syria and the US. His involvement in ISIS is allegedly based on his skills with computers and his fluency in English and Arabic.
The New York Post and WND have speculated that Abousamra regularly prayed at the Islam Society of Boston (ISB) — a mosque in Cambridge that is known to have been frequented by Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev as well as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, known as the Islamic Jihad poster girl “Lady al Qaeda.”
“We’ve had multiple inquiries on that,” Comcowich said about Abousamra attending the ISB. He would not confirm this information.
Photo courtesy of the FBI.