Dead Editor of ISIS Online Propaganda Machine May Have Been Stoughton Man

The man behind ISIS' online propaganda magazine was an American computer scientist and may have been a Stoughton man who fled the country to join the terrorist group.

The group announced through a eulogy in their online magazine Rumiyah that Sheikh Abu Sulayman, who was the chief editor of their online propaganda operation, was killed in a coalition airstrike near Tabqa, Syria during the second week of January, CNN reported. His picture and biography are very similar to Ahmad Abousamra, a former Stoughton man who was placed on the FBI most wanted list in 2013

A US law enforcement official told CNN that US counter-terrorism agencies believe that Abousamra played a key role in ISIS' propaganda operation in Syria and is the same man profiled in the magazine. Federal authorities have not confirmed Abousamra's 2015 death and ISIS agents have been known to fake their deaths to take the heat off themselves.

Abousamra fled the country in 2006. He was placed on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list in late 2013, having been indicted for allegedly attempting to obtain military training during trips to Pakistan and Yemen; a reward of $50,000 for information leading to his capture was issued in October 2012.

Abousamra reportedly attended Xaverian for three years before transferring to Stoughton High School his senior year and lived in Mansfield at the time he left the United States.

His death was reported in 2015, but the details in the eulogy correlate nearly identically with an FBI indictment against him, CNN reported.

Image via FBI