U.S. officials on Friday revealed what they believe is the name of an American citizen from Florida who was involved in a suicide bombing last weekend in Syria.
The man is believed to have been Moner Mohammad Abusalha, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Other officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they cannot be 100 percent certain that Abusalha was the man killed in a bombing in Syria because the U.S. has no access to fingerprints, DNA or dental records.
However, officials say, investigators have spoken with his relatives in Florida and have shown them photos of the man who was said to be involved in the bombing, and the relatives believe it's him.
U.S. officials said they have confirmed reports from jihadi sources that Abusalha was a Palestinian American.
NBC News was first to report on Wednesday that U.S. officials had confirmed accounts from Islamic militants that an American carried out a suicide bombing in Syria on behalf of an al Qaeda-linked militant group last Sunday.
At the time, social media identified the bomber only by his Arabic nom de guerre, Abu Hurayra al-Amriki (Abu Hurayra the American). A post on Twitter said he carried out one of four suicide bombings of Syrian government sites in Jabal al-Arbaa'in in Idlib Province — the scene of heavy fighting in recent months. (One U.S. official later pointed out that "Abu Hurayra" translates from Arabic as "father of the kitten" or "of the kitten," and was the name adopted by a cat-loving companion of Muhammad, the founder of Islam.)
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The tweet included an image of a young Caucasian man with a beard holding a cat, as well as images of the bombing. Another tweet in Arabic included a photo showing the same light-skinned man sitting on the ground wearing what appeared to be a suicide bomb vest.
It's those photos that were shown to the relatives in Florida.
Efforts to reach members of Abusalha's family by NBC News on Friday were unsuccessful.
NBC's Robert Windrem contributed to this report.
