The Islamic State's affiliate in Yemen is one of the group's least successful enterprises around the world. Even so, there has been the occasional report of a foreigner in the Yemen affiliate's ranks. It would seem though that to the extent that there are foreigners in the group's ranks, they are primarily drawn from foreign refugees in Yemen (e.g. the Somali refugee community) or other foreigners with Yemeni roots. The latter is the case for one 'Abu Rayana al-Britani,' a 'martyred' military commander of the Islamic State's Yemen affiliate profiled in this week's issue of the group's newsletter al-Naba'. Abu Rayana, as it turns out, was born in Britain to a family with roots in Dhali' governorate in south Yemen. Early in his life, he was involved in the gangs and had criminal convictions. However, he felt anger at the 'Crusaders' for the invasion of Islam and eventually became religious, travelling to Dammaj (which was a centre of Salafism in northern Yemen) and studying Arabic and Shari'i sciences.
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https://aymennaltamimi.substack.com/p/the-life-of-abu-rayana-al-britani