Zulfi Hoxha

Zulfi Hoxha (16 January 1992 – 2 November 2019), also known by the nom de guerre (kunya) Abu Hamza al-Amriki, was an Albanian-American Islamic State (IS) senior commander and recruiter of foreign fighters fighting in Syria and in Iraq.[1]

Background and education

The son of an Albanian-American pizzeria owner, Ramadan Hoxha (1949–2004[2]), in Margate City, New Jersey.[3] Hoxha's parents immigrated to the United States from Albania.[4] He is a 2010 graduate of Atlantic City High School.[4] He was described as shy and closed.[3] Hoxha was described by former co-workers as using to joke "I Hate You, Americans."[5]

Islamist career

Hoxha left the United States on 6 April 2015 for Turkey and four days later joined an IS training camp in Syria.[1] Usaama Rahim and David Wright, co-conspirators in the 2015 Boston beheading plot who were "part of a wider network that was in communication with Islamic State operatives in Syria," raised the funds and made the arrangements that enabled Hoxha to travel to Turkey, make contact with, and join ISIS in Syria.[1]

Within six months he was featured in a video where several captured Kurdish soldiers are beheaded; Hoxha is the first to behead one of the captives.[1] It might be the first known case of an American IS member beheading individuals on video, and it is the first case in which the US government confirmed the name and American citizenship of an IS member featured in IS media.[1] He is present in the propaganda video We Will Surely Guide Them To Our Ways published in May 2017, where he says in English "Are you incapable of stabbing a kaffir [non-Muslim] with a knife, throwing him off of a building, or running him over with a car? Liberate yourself from hellfire by killing a kaffir", located in Nineveh in northwestern Iraq.[1][6][7] In an alternative translation by La Stampa and the BBC, in the May 2017 video Al-Amriki makes an appeal to Muslims to avenge the "women and children killed by the uncontrolled bombing of (Mosul by) the United States," saying, "Are you not able to use a knife against the infidels, to throw them from a building, to run them over with a car?"[8] As Al Ameriki, he also appeared in a video showcasing ISIS weaponry.[9]

Hoxha is one of only a "few dozen" Americans to have gone overseas to join Islamist terrorists; others include John Georgelas and Abdullah Ramo Pazara.[10][1] He was killed in an airstrike in 2019.

See also

References
  1. The Atlantic.
  2. "Ramadan Hoxha". Find a Grave.; "Ramadan Hoxha". Ancient Faces.
  3. Everett, Rebecca (20 November 2018). "Before joining ISIS in Syria, Jersey Shore man was a shy, 'closed person'". Star Ledger. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  4. Ted Greenberg, Brian McCone (17 January 2018). "The ISIS 'Senior Commander' Who Grew Up on the Jersey Shore". WCAU. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  5. Ted Greenberg; Brian X. McCrone (18 January 2018). "'I Hate You, Americans': Co-Worker, Friend Recall ISIS 'Senior Commander' From Jersey Shore". NBC 10 WCAU. Retrieved 25 January 2018. "We used to joke around like, 'We know you can't stand us Americans.' And he would laugh like, haha, 'Yeah, we can't stand you Americans,'" Cacia told NBC10.
  6. Connor, Tracy (18 May 2017). "ISIS Video Shows New Weapons, 'American' Urging Attacks in U.S." NBC News. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  7. LeMeire, Jason (19 May 2017). "ISIS Inspired By Times Square Crash, Warns of Vehicle Attacks on NYC Tourist Hub". Newsweek. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  8. "Italian paper warns IS may be plotting new attacks in Europe". La Stampa. BBC. 30 May 2017. ProQuest 1903345723.
  9. "IS flaunts its "Made in Islamic State" weapons". BBC. 18 May 2007. ProQuest 1899728198.
  10. McCoy, Craig (19 January 2018). "From Atlantic City High to ISIS: the path of a homegrown terrorist". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 21 January 2018.

Sources
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