US confirms American carried out Syria suicide bombing

WASHINGTON: An American citizen fighting for a hardline group carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Syria, US officials confirmed Friday, in the first such case in the war.

The State Department did not identify the man, said to have been behind a truck bombing on Sunday in the northern province of Idlib, but acknowledged concerns about the flow of foreign fighters into Syria.

"I can confirm that this individual was a US citizen involved in a suicide bombing in Syria. We don't have further information beyond that to share at this time," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The man went by the alias Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki, which translates as "The American," she added.

Psaki agreed this is believed to be the first such suicide bombing carried out by an American since 2011, the start of a war in which more than 162,000 people have been killed.

Estimates of the number of foreign fighters who have flooded into Syria in the past three years range from between 9,000 to 11,000, with most believed to have come from neighboring countries.

Psaki could not give precise figures of how many Americans may be among them, although the New York Times said about 100 Americans are believed to have traveled to Syria, mainly to join the rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

"We're engaged in a focused outreach effort with key partner governments regarding our shared concern over the flow of foreign fighters to the Syrian conflict," Psaki said.