According to information obtained by Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, Reda Seyam was killed in early December in clashes south of Mosul, an IS stronghold and the second-largest city in Iraq that was overrun by jihadists back in June.
Seyam, a German of Egyptian descent, went under the alias of Dhul Qaranain, a figure from the Quran, whose name literally means "the possessor of two horns." According to media, he was a high-ranking IS official and was the group's education minister in the seized northern territories.
Over the past decade, Seyam reportedly fought alongside Islamists in several different wars and was suspected to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia, which killed more than 200 people.
According to Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany's domestic security agency, at least 60 German citizens have died while fighting for the IS. Some 550 Germans have recently been fighting in Iraq and Syria, and more than 180 are believed to have returned to Germany.
