Abu Salha was raised in Vero Beach, Florida, by a Sunni Palestinian father and an Italian-American mother. At the age of 22, he became the first known American suicide bomber to die in Syria.[1] He produced a video describing his motivation to die on behalf of the al-Nusra Front.[3][4]
Abu Salha's name later came up as a contact in an unsuccessful 2014 investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The subject of that investigation was Omar Mateen, who would later commit the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.[5] The investigation was motivated "because Abu-Salha and Mateen attended the same mosque,"[6] law-enforcement officials told The Wall Street Journal. During the shooting, Mateen told a 9-1-1 operator that the shooting was inspired by Abu Salha.[7] In the video published by al-Nusra, Abu Salha said that he was being watched by the FBI before he left for Syria, and that he moved to stay with friends in the state of Florida in order to throw the FBI off track and make them believe he was in the United States after he had left.[8] Both Abu Salha and Mateen lived in Fort Pierce, Florida.[9]
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Barrett, Devlin; Entous, Adam; Cullison, Alan (June 12, 2016). "FBI Twice Probed Orlando Gunman". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 20, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2016. Law-enforcement officials said that investigation was prompted because Abu-Salha and Mateen attended the same mosque.
