Abu Umar al-Almani
| Abu Umar al-Almani | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Yamin Abou-Zand |
| Born | 1986 Stuttgart, Germany |
| Died | March 25, 2017 (aged 30–31) Near Tabqa Dam, Syria |
| Allegiance |
 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
|
| Service/branch | |
| Years of service | 2015–2017 |
| Rank | Emir in the Al-Thawrah District |
| Battles/wars | |
War on Terror: Military intervention against ISIL
Yamin Abou-Zand (1986 – 25 March 2017), better known by his nom de guerre Abu Umar al-Almani (Arabic: أبو عمر الألماني; Abū ʿUmar al-Almānī), was a prominent German commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He gained notoriety by appearing in the first German ISIL propaganda video in 2015, and went on to fight for the militant organization until 2017, when he was killed in action against the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Born in 1986 in Stuttgart into a partially German Muslim family, Yamin A. Zand grew up in Baden-Württemberg until moving with his parents to Königswinter in 2000. There, he married a German Muslim and got his own apartment. The couple had no children and lived secluded, though neighbors said that they were generally nice people. Yamin also began working at the Deutsche Telekom, where he was initially considered to be a "promising, committed and very courteous employee", but in late 2013 his co-workers noticed that he became increasingly extremist in his religious world view. Eventually, he began to openly express sympathy for the ISIL, whereupon the Telekom reported him to the German security agencies. Yamin eventually quit his job in late 2014. In early 2015 he and his wife disappeared without informing their families, who reported them as missing. The two appear to have travelled to Turkey, and from there to Syria in order to join ISIL. Soon after, Yamin adopted his nom de guerre "Abu Umar al-Almani" and joined Millatu Ibrahim, a German Salafist organization led by the Austrian Mohamed Mahmoud that had become a unit of ISIL's military.
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