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Recent Appearances...

Doku Umarov	Doku Umarov	Chechnya	Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia	Chechen	At Large		20050727
	Dokku Umarov	Chechnya	Caucasus	Chechen	At Large	Big Shot	20031128

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Dagestani terror suspect detention extended by Russian court

2021-10-19

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A Moscow court left in custody for six months a resident of Dagestan, Magomed Nurov, accused of involvement in organizing terrorist attacks in 2010.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the investigators believe that Gusen Magomedov was the organizer of the terrorist attacks in the Moscow metro on March 29, 2019, who according to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, was killed in 2013.

According to the investigation, resident of Dagestan Magomed Nurov helped Magomedov escape after the terrorist attack. In September, the Prosecutor General's Office charged Nurov with involvement in a criminal community and a stable armed group, committing terrorist acts and illegal manufacture of explosive devices. The case has been referred to court.

According to the investigators, acting as a liaison for the gang, he drove its members to meetings where terrorist attacks were planned in the Moscow metro, and also hid a participant in terrorist acts from law enforcement agencies. Nurov fully admitted his guilt.

On March 29, 2010, two explosions took place at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations. A total of 40 people were killed and over 100 were injured.

The leader of the North Caucasian militants, Doku Umarov, claimed responsibility for these terrorist acts, claiming that he was taking revenge on the military for actions in Chechnya, according to the "Caucasian Knot," "... [for] terrorist acts committed by suicide bombers on the territory of the Russian Federation."

The arrest of Magomed Nurov, accused of involvement in terrorist attacks at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations of the Moscow metro in 2010, has been extended for six months.

"The court ruled the petition of the investigation to satisfy and extend the term of Nurov's detention until March 27, 2022," Kommersant quoted the judge as saying.

Nurov and his lawyers objected to the extension of his arrest. The defense noted that the accused is not going to hide from the court, and before the arrest he had a permanent job: he worked as a watchman at a children's sports school in the Moscow region, TASS reported today.

The Second Western District Military Court will begin hearing the case on October 25, the agency said.

The "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that on November 22, 2020, the head of the police department of the Kizlyar district of Dagestan, Gazi Isaev, was detained. He was charged under articles on participation in a criminal community with the use of official position, on banditry and a terrorist act.

According to the investigation, Isaev joined the terrorist organization Imarat Kavkaz, banned in Russia by the court, and using his official position, provided the militants with information about the security forces.

In 2010, he helped the suicide bomber get to Moscow and set up an explosion in the metro there. A Moscow court arrested Isaev, then on October 14 the court extended Isaev's arrest for three months.

A rally demanding the release of Isaev was held in November 2020 by employees of the Kizlyar ROVD, Internet users and retired officers who questioned the court's sincerity.

In April, several deputies of the Kizlyar District Assembly asked the Russian president to take control of the Isayev case, calling him an honest and decent officer. Chairman of the District Assembly Nurudin Kakhirovcalled the appeal a private initiative of the deputies.

Link

-Obits-

FSB find remains of former most-wanted terrorist in Russia, Count Doku

2017-10-06

[RT] Russia’s Federal Security Service
... the successor to the KGB...
(FSB) has confirmed the discovery of the remains of notorious terrorist

Doku Count Doku Umarov
... Late self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia. Then the Russians killed him...
, who criminal masterminded several deadly attacks on civilian targets and was killed in 2013.

"As a result of targeted long-term operational search activities, the Federal Security Service has discovered the burial site of the leader of the North Caucasian criminal gang, Doku Umarov, and four members of his gang in the mountain-wooded area in the Russia’s Republic of Ingushetia," the FSB said in a statement on Wednesday.

Umarov and his associates "were eliminated during the special operation of the security forces in September 2013," the statement added.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, in a post on Telegram, welcomed the discovery of Umarov’s remains.

"The elimination of Doku Umarov became the key moment in the fight against terrorism in the North Caucasus. It broke the back of international terrorists. I’m sure that international terrorism will never raise its head in our republic or in our region," Kadyrov wrote.

Umarov headed the Caucasus Emirate Death Eater group, which closely cooperated with Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS, formerly ISIS/ISIS) and al-Qaeda.

He was on the wanted list of Russia, the US, and the UN Security Council for organizing multiple acts of terrorism, kidnapping, contract murder, and other serious crimes in Russia.

The Chechen Islamist participated in a terrorist attack in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia in 1999, when Death Eaters managed to seize over a dozen villages.

Umarov took responsibility for several acts of terrorism in Russia, including attacks on the Nevsky Express passenger train, the Moscow Metro, and Domodedovo Airport.

An kaboom on the Nevsky Express high speed train, travelling between Moscow and St. Petersburg, claimed the lives 27 people and injured around a hundred on November 27, 2009.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Caucasus Islamist Leader Killed in Russian Raid

2015-08-13

[AnNahar] The leader of a Caucasus Islamist group in Russia's restive Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
region has been killed in a mountain raid that included air strikes, Russian security services and Islamists said Tuesday.

Four people died in the operation by Russia's special forces and military, Dagestan's interior ministry said.

The current leader of the Caucasus Emirate group, Magomed Suleimanov, was among those killed, the National Anti-terrorist Committee (NAK) said in a statement to Russian news agencies.

Insurgent website Kavkaz Center also said that Suleimanov, 39, was killed in the course of a two-day raid near the mountain village of Gimry which included strikes from helicopters.

The Caucasus Emirate group had claimed several major attacks on Russian soil in recent years, including the Domodedovo airport bombing, which killed 27 people, and more recently twin blasts in the southern city of Volgograd which killed 34.

Suleimanov's biography on myrmidon websites says he was educated in the Al-Fatih Islamic Institute in Damascus after which he began recruiting fighters in his home village Gimry.

He orchestrated several attacks in the region, including a suicide kaboom that killed respected Moslem holy man Said Afandi in his home along with seven others in 2012.

He has only been the head of the Caucasus Emirate group since July, after a hiatus of more than a year since its longtime leader

Doku Count Doku Umarov
... Self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku has announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia...
was killed in March 2014.

Besides lack of leadership, the Caucasus Emirate group, which was formed in 2007, has been weakened by an exodus of fighters joining the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group in Syria and switching allegiance to IS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
In June, turbans in four Caucasus regions pledged allegiance to the IS, which established its own governor for the Caucasus, Rustam Aselderov.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Six Caucasus Emirate commanders transfer allegiance to IS

2015-01-03

Sixteen months after the death of Chechen Republic Ichkeria President Doku Umarov in the fall of 2007, the continued viability of the Caucasus Emirate (IK) is open to question. Over the past six weeks, at least three Chechen and three Dagestani commanders have retracted their oath of obedience (bayat) to Umarov's successor as Caucasus Emirate leader, the Avar theologian Sheikh Ali Abu-Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov), and instead pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Sultan Zaynalabidov, Rustam Aselderov, Abu-Mukhammad Agachaulsky, Makhran Saidov and two other commanders known as Khamzat and Usman are now loyal to the IS. How many more rank-and-file jihadis have done the same is not clear, but Kebekov's warning about an imminent split within the insurgency suggests the number is significant.

Experts are unclear why the realignment has happened. It is possible that some Islamic radicals in Russia may be turned off by a more "moderate" approach, or that generational disagreements may be a factor.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Was the Grozny attack a trial run?

2014-12-08

Two days after clashes in Grozny between Chechen security personnel and Chechen insurgents under commander Khamzat (Aslan Byutukayev), the militant leadership still has not formally claimed responsibility for the attack or revealed its objective.

Just hours after the battles began early on December 4, a two-minute video clip was posted on YouTube in which a man claiming to be one of the fighters at large in Grozny identified them as having pledged loyalty to Ali Abu-Muhammad, the Avar theologian chosen to succeed Doku Umarov as Caucasus Emirate leader.

Speaking in Chechen, the man said "many" fighters had entered Grozny on orders from Amir Khamzat, and had killed "many" of the enemy, destroyed vehicles, and seized more weaponry than they could carry away. But he also said it was a suicide mission and that "we shall fight to the death."

Chechen parliament speaker Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov dismissed that video and other footage filmed by Grozny residents as fakes "filmed far from Grozny and long before today."

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Kadyrov: Terrorists' families to be deported, homes razed

2014-12-06

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has announced new punishments for terrorism that target the families of those committing terrorist acts, a day after an attack in Grozny left 24 people dead.

Kadyrov said on his Instagram account on December 5, "If a gunman in Chechnya kills a policeman or someone else, the gunman's family will be immediately evicted from Chechnya without the right to return, and their home will be razed down to the basement.

Golly. Just like the Israelis. Doesn't he know that doesn't work?

Everyone should be aware of this before aiming a weapon at a policeman or another person. I won’t allow anyone to shed blood here."

Kadyrov continued, "The time when it was said that parents don't answer for the deeds of their sons or daughters is over. They will answer in Chechnya."

Kadyrov spoke after ~~terrorists~~ militants occupied a printing house on December 4 and battled security forces. Russia's Interior Ministry said that 14 policemen and security force members and ten ~~terrorists~~ militants had been killed in the clash. The building was destroyed after a fire broke out.

Kadyrov claimed Akhmat Umarov, the brother of the late Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov, plotted the attack in Grozny. He said Umarov organized the attack by "deceiving the group of thugs who infiltrated Grozny" that there were some 400 gunmen already deployed there waiting to join the operation once the publishing house was captured.

Akhmat Umarov lives in Turkey. Kadyrov said Russian officials should "demand that Turkish authorities extradite him."

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized members of Ukraine's government who, Lavrov charged, spoke positively about the attack. Lavrov called the Ukrainian lawmakers' comments of support "blasphemous and cynical" and said statements from those lawmakers about opening a "second front" in Chechnya could cause Russia to file a lawsuit.

Russian authorities have filed criminal cases against Ukrainian officials, but neither party has any authority to bring officials from the other country to court.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Caucasus Emirate adopts Terror 2.0 tactics

2014-10-28

The new Emir of the self-proclaimed Caucasus Emirate (CE), located in Russia’s North Caucasus region, is making changes to the modus operandi of the organization. Ali Abu Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov) was originally appointed as qadi, or senior Islamic judge, in October 2010. After the death of Doku Umarov in September 2013, the group appointed Abu Muhammad as Emir in March 2014 (apparently, it had taken the group some time to confirm the death of Umarov). In recent media releases, Abu Muhammad has given notice of a number of new policies, and provided official comment on several pressing issues for the insurgency...

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

A year after Umarov's death, Caucasus insurgency sputters

2014-09-08

September 7 marked the first anniversary of the death from poisoning of Doku Umarov, the Chechen field commander who abandoned the cause of an independent Chechen Republic Ichkeria in 2007 and instead proclaimed a Caucasus Emirate (IK) encompassing the entire North Caucasus.

Though Umarov's death has had little impact on the military capabilities of the Islamic insurgency, it nonetheless ushered in a new stage in the evolution of the Chechen-dominated resistance into a supranational force. Reflecting a shift over the past five to seven years of the center of military activity from Chechnya to Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Dagestan, the new IK head, Aliaskhab Kebekov (Amir Ali Abu-Mukhammad) is an Avar, not a Chechen. Kebekov is a theologian and ideologue, rather than an experienced general and military strategist.

Veteran Chechen field commander Makhran Saidov asserted in video footage released last month that "any one of the Vilayet Nokhchiicho [Chechnya] fighters could have become amir in Doku's place. Don't think that we chose a brother from Dagestan for lack of a worthy candidate here or because we are weakened.... We wanted to see at the head of the Caucasus Emirate a man who is knowledgeable and God-fearing.... It's not necessary that he should be a strategist or an experienced warrior."

Even before Umarov's death, the effectiveness of the insurgents' military activity was on the decline. The insurgency has not carried out a major operation anywhere in the region since two audacious attacks in August and October 2010. What is more, it failed to deliver on Umarov's instructions to take "any measures permitted by God" to prevent the success of the Sochi Olympic games.

This failure is not likely to have been a direct consequence of Umarov's demise, given his total lack of skill as a strategist or a tactician. In that respect, the January 2013 deaths of the brothers Khuseyn and Muslim Gakayev and their elite band of fighters constituted a far more serious loss. The limited military capability of the insurgency today is primarily the result of the killing in 2006 of Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev, the strategist behind both the Beslan school seizure and multiple attacks a few months earlier on security forces in Ingushetia.

Human rights watchdog Memorial attributes the marked decline to the exodus of insurgents from the area to fight in Syria.

Link

Europe

Chechens fighting on both sides in Ukraine

2014-08-31

Eighteen years after the signing of the accord that ended the Chechen war, a veteran Chechen field commander has issued a reminder that there are two sides to the ongoing struggle for the hearts and minds of the Chechen people.

In a statement dated August 28, Isa Munayev appeals to the United States and "the countries of the democratic world" to provide "comprehensive military assistance" to the Ukrainian people, whom Munayev calls victims of Russian imperial aggression, just as the Chechens were.

Munayev played a key role in the defense of Grozny at the start of the 1999-2000 war, and continued fighting after the resistance forces retreated south to the mountains, acquiring a reputation for courage and tactical skills. In late 2007, however, he distanced himself from Doku Umarov following the latter's abandonment of the cause of Chechen independence and proclamation of a Caucasus Emirate. Munayev left Chechnya soon afterward.

Meanwhile, evidence continues to mount of the presence on the side of the pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine of hundreds of fighters sent by Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov. Those fighters are apparently primarily volunteers from among the various police and security forces under Kadyrov, who has consistently denied that there are any "Chechen battalions" in Ukraine, even after a Financial Times article quoted a fighter named Zelimkhan who said he and his comrades had been sent to Ukraine in mid-May on Kadyrov's orders.

Kadyrov has admitted, however, that a few dozen Chechen volunteers living outside Russia have traveled to Ukraine on their own initiative to fight, and that a handful of them have been killed.

Ingush chief Yunus-Bek Yevkurov similarly said in early June that 25 residents of his republic had travelled to Ukraine to fight, and four had been killed. In a subsequent interview, Yevkurov, a former Russian military-intelligence officer, affirmed his readiness to go to Ukraine himself "to defend those who are being humiliated and killed."

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Kadyrov's men did not distinguish themselves in battle. There have been several reports over the past few weeks that Chechen units fighting under the command of Russian officers in eastern Ukraine have been disbanded and sent home for cowardice or desertion, surrendered to Ukrainian security forces, or asked for safe passage to the Russian border.

Kadyrov rejected as false reports that Chechens had surrendered. he declared that "once a Chechen takes up arms, he doesn't surrender."

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

New leader of Caucasus insurgency threatens "crushing blows"

2014-05-26

Ali Abu-Mukhammad, the Avar theologian chosen early this year to succeed Doku Umarov as Caucasus Emirate leader, has released a 40-minute video clip in which he warns that the ~~terrorists~~ insurgents are preparing to inflict "crushing blows" on the enemy. Abu-Mukhammad uses the question-and-answer format previously favored by Umarov to convey the insurgency's position. The questions are posed by a speaker off-camera.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Kadyrov begins a new quarrel

2014-04-30

Two years after his inconclusive polemic with Republic of Ingushetia head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov over their disputed border, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has fired the first round in a new quarrel.

Addressing Chechen Interior Ministry personnel on April 22, Kadyrov openly labeled Saygidpasha Umakhanov, longtime mayor of the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt just over the Chechen-Dagestan border, "a bandit". Kadyrov further alleged that Umakhanov's brother channels money to the Islamic insurgency. Umakhanov responded with a statement saying his religious and moral convictions do not permit him to engage in a polemic with Kadyrov in light of his profound respect for Kadyrov's late father Akhmad-hadji.

Kadyrov's grievances with the municipal leadership in Khasavyurt in general, and with the Umakhanov family in particular, center on their imputed connivance with the North Caucasus insurgency (of which, as Kadyrov noted, an Avar from Dagestan was recently elected to succeed Doku Umarov as leader) and the spillover into Chechnya.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Caucasian militants in Syria swear allegiance to Umarov's successor

2014-04-01

The North Caucasus insurgent website Kavkazcenter has posted a statement in the name of rebels from the North Caucasus fighting in Syria pledging support for Aliaskhab Kebekov (aka Ali Abu-Mukhammad), who recently succeeded Doku Umarov as head of the North Caucasus Emirate, proclaimed by Umarov in 2007.

The statement is signed by Abdul-Khalim Ash-Shishani, a member of the Shariat Committee of, and a spokesman for, the Djeish Mukhadjirin va Ansar (Brigade of Migrants and Ansars ) group that is made up of foreign fighters, primarily from the North Caucasus.

Ash-Shishani expresses regret at Umarov's death, but says the news that Kebekov, the "elder brother and mentor of the [Caucasus] Emirate's Muslim youth," had been chosen to succeed him was "healing balsam to Muslims' bleeding hearts." In the name of his militants, Ash-Shishani swears allegiance to Kebekov for as long as he abides by the teachings of the Koran.

Ash-Shishani further affirms the preparedness of his men to return to the North Caucasus to fight under Kebekov's command. He exclaims, "Know, Oh Sheikh, that you have fighters on the territory of the North Caucasus and Sham [Syria], on the territory of other countries, and they are all ready to return home at the first opportunity and fight under your leadership."

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has publicly expressed concern about the possibility that Chechens currently fighting in Syria might return to wage jihad. He claimed that there are "thousands" of militants in Syria who post video footage on a daily basis declaring their readiness to move on to the North Caucasus once the fighting in Syria is over.

It was in Syria that Kebekov studied Islamic theology in the early 2000s under his own nephew, Murtuzali Magomedov. Russian journalist Orkhan Djemal writes that it was Magomedov's unresolved killing in 2009 that caused Kebekov to join the insurgency.

One of Kebekov's first public statements as Caucasus Emirate chief was addressed to rebels from the North Caucasus fighting in Syria. He recalled that he had warned them before their departure for Syria that "we do not want you to form a detachment named 'Imarat Kavkaz,'" but instead to join the foremost group fighting under the banner of monotheism, subordinate themselves to its commander, and not allow themselves to be drawn in to any dispute among the various anti-Assad forces.

Kebekov appeals for them to "not on any account take part" in the fighting between Al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and Ash-Shams (ISIS) and more moderate groups. Djeish Mukhadjirin va Ansar commander Salakhuddin Shishani said that his men are neutral in that conflict, although they have provided medical care to wounded ISIS militants.

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