Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Al-Khattab	Al-Khattab	Chechnya	Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia				20020216
Ibn Ul-Khattab	Ibn Ul-Khattab	Chechnya	Caucasus				20040418	Link
Ibn al Khattab	Ibn al Khattab	al-Qaeda	Terror Networks				20060612	Link
Ibn al-Khattab	Ibn al-Khattab	Chechnya	Iraq				20031128
Jamal Khattab	Jamal Khattab	Usbat al-Nur	Syria-Lebanon				20030520
Khaled Khattab	Khaled Khattab	Palestinian Authority	Middle East	Palestinian			20020712
Khattab	Khattab	Islamic Army of Dagestan	Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia				20020429
	Khattab	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula	Arabia				20040206
	Khattab	Chechnya	Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia	Saudi	Deceased	Big Shot	20030218
	Khattab	Al-Qaeda	Arabia				20021216
Omar Ibn Al Khattab	Omar Ibn Al Khattab	al-Qaeda	Arabia				20040628	Link
Omar Ibn al Khattab	Omar Ibn al Khattab	Chechnya	Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia				20020427
Sheik Jamal Khattab	Sheik Jamal Khattab	Islamic Jihadi Movement	Middle East				20030301
Sheikh Jamal Khattab	Sheikh Jamal Khattab	Palestinian Islamic forces	Syria-Lebanon				20030717
	Sheikh Jamal Khattab	Islamic Mujahed Movement	Syria-Lebanon-Iran				20020424

Terror Networks

Black flags over the Dark Continent. Who is the Russian Afrika Korps fighting with?

2024-05-21

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Semenov

[REGNUM] On May 15, ISIS reported attacks on local soldiers and the Wagner Group (as they still call all Russian forces) in Mali and Niger, including the bombing of 20 people on mines in eastern Niger and the hijacking of a Red Cross ambulance in the western part of this country.

Thus, the local branch of the terrorist organization is trying to demonstrate its activity in the region and at the moment is probably the main opponent of the Afrika Korps of the Russian Defense Ministry, which was deployed in a number of countries in the Sahel - a region also called the “Greater Sahara”.

There is a whole mosaic of terrorist groups and organizations operating here that oppose local governments. But the main role is played by two terrorist organizations: in addition to the one indicated, Al-Qaeda. They have integrated smaller factions and are still present in many countries in the region, despite attempts to combat them (or imitate it) by anti-terrorist forces led by the United States and France.

Therefore, Western forces are leaving this part of Africa today, in many countries of which new governments have come to power.

AFRIKA KORPS, THE TURKISH FACTOR AND FIRST SUCCESSES
The Russians are acting in Africa not to impose enslaving agreements on local governments, as the Americans and French did, but only to ensure security from international terrorism, preventing its spread throughout the region and the world.

Just the sheer noble goodness of their pure Russian hearts, is it? Kewl.

The countries of the European Union and the United States are unable to provide such assistance. They make assistance programs for Africans conditional on compliance with a number of conditions. Firstly, from the promotion of “democratic reforms” and “human rights”, secondly, from the participation of local authorities in the fight against illegal migration in the interests of the EU, and thirdly, from obligations to counteract Russian influence in the region.

Russia does not make such demands and is ready to provide assistance to either a military or civilian government, democratic or Islamic, only in order to prevent terrorist leaders from taking the place of this government.

However, Western countries and Russia are not the only external players in the region.

For example, in Niger, the piquancy of the situation is added by the fact that, according to Syrian opposition sources, a group of 300 fighters of anti-government Syrian formations from the Sultan Murad, Al-Hamza and Suleiman Shah groups, operating under under the auspices of Turkey.

According to sources, they are in Niger to help the new government of this country in the fight against terrorism after it asked the Americans to “exit”.

In addition, Ankara supplies Bayraktar drones to Mali and Burkina Faso, where Russian units also operate. Therefore, it is possible that Africa will become a field of cooperation between Russia and Turkey in the counter-terrorism field.

Cooperation or opposition, given that those groups are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Turkish government. Interesting times, guys — do try to see the amusing side of this little project you’ve taken on after encouraging the locals to push out France and America.

Since the deployment of the Afrika Korps in the Greater Sahara, local armed forces have been able to achieve important successes in countering terrorists. Most notably, in April, Malian government forces killed Abu Huzeifa, a local ISIS affiliate commander, in a large-scale operation in the northern Menaka region.

And earlier this year, the Burkina Faso Air Force, where Russian forces and advisers are also deployed, killed the second-most senior leader of ISIS in the Greater Sahara, Abdulmalik Haroun Oulel, as a result of an air strike on a convoy. It is a major victory for Burkina Faso's army and a sign that the country's recent military-led modernization campaign, led by Russia, is allowing them to more effectively target jihadists.

FULANI, SAHRAWI AND TUAREG
It is significant that Abdulmalik came from the new generation of ISIS-BS leaders, since he was a native of the region and a representative of the local Fulani people, semi-sedentary inhabitants of the Sahel, who were discriminated against by local governments. Therefore, the Fulani often joined the ranks of terrorists and constituted the majority in their ranks. This applies to both ISIS and al-Qaeda.

The two previous ISIS leaders in the region with the corresponding surname al-Sahrawi (i.e. "Sahrawis") were from Western Sahara and Morocco and had previously operated in Algeria before retreating to the Sahel, where they led local Fulani militias.

In October 2015, Adnan Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi, a jihadist fighter originally from Morocco, along with several supporters from the Mourabitoun group operating in Algeria and Mali and associated with al-Qaeda, pledged allegiance to " Islamic State".

However, at that time the activities of Abu al-Walid’s group in Africa went almost unnoticed. This was also related to the delay in recognition of this branch by the “headquarters” of the terrorists, which took place only in 2017. And when this group was nevertheless included in the “caliphate”, it was first reassigned to the branch of “ISIS - West Africa velayat”, from which “ISIS in the Greater Sahara” remains dependent to this day, despite recognition as an independent factions.

During those years, the dominant jihadist organization in the Sahel was Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). It has carried out terrorist attacks as far away as Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and Grand Bassam in Côte d'Ivoire.

Back in 1998, Hassan Khattab, the commander of one of the scattered extremist units during the “black decade” (civil war) in Algeria, formed his own organization called the “Salafi Group of Preaching and Combat.”

In 2006, its leadership joined the global al-Qaeda network and swore allegiance to Bin Laden. A few months later, they renamed themselves Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group then moved its activities from Algeria to the Sahel, primarily to Mali.

AQIM was able to unite several disparate groups in the north and central part of Mali, including the remnants of the Mourabitun movement. Then, in early March 2017, an organization associated with AQIM, Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), appeared. In it, in addition to the Fulani, who make up the majority in ISIS, there are also Tuaregs, along with their Salafi-jihadist group “Ansar al-Sunna”.

"SAHEL PHENOMENON"
Unlike the Syrian-Iraqi conflict arc, where ISIS waged an irreconcilable fight not only with Iraqi and Syrian government forces, but also with its competitors from Al-Qaeda, in the Greater Sahara, the dominant JNIM tried to maintain friendly relations with ISIS -BS.

In the expert community, such relations between the two groups were defined as the “Sahel phenomenon” or “Sahel exception”: local factions of the two largest terrorist groups were able to move in parallel courses for some time without coming into conflict with each other.

The ideas of reconciliation with ISIS (contrary to the general course of Al-Qaeda) were promoted by three AQIM field commanders.

The first of them, al-Humam, was known for openly supporting the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015.

The second, Abu Iyad al-Tunisi, leader of the Ansar al-Sharia group and member of the AQIM Shura, believed that ISIS could be “returned to the right path.” A noticeable number of his yesterday's recruits from Ansar al-Sharia were already in the ranks of the organization in Syria, and some occupied important positions.

Both were killed by French troops on February 21, 2019 in Elak, north of Timbuktu.

The third AQIM commander who tried to get closer to ISIS, Abu Yahya al-Jazairi, was killed during an attack on Malian armed forces in Bamba on April 6, 2020.

After this, the two groups moved on to open confrontation.

In 2020, ISIS invaded JNIM-controlled territories, committed atrocities against civilians (potentially alienating locals from the jihadist movement itself), and demonstrated the ability to overshadow JNIM activities with terrorist attacks.

The weakening of JNIM and the strengthening of ISIS in the Sahel was also facilitated by the fact that the then government of Mali began negotiations with prominent Tuareg JNIM leaders and openly announced this. These negotiations split the ranks of AQIM/JNIM and pushed its most radical elements to join ISIS.

A significant part of the Tuaregs also left the JNIM, moving to the more moderate group “High Council for the Unity of Azawad”, which does not share the jihadist views of Al-Qaeda.

As a result, the Mali government refused to negotiate not only with radical jihadists, but also with Tuareg rebel groups and moderate Islamists. This caused great displeasure in Algeria, which actively lobbied for the peace process and blamed “the machinations of the UAE” for its failure.

As a result, the failure of the negotiation process led to certain groups of the local population calling on the “jihadists” to unite with each other again.

UNITY ON ETHNIC GROUNDS
The combination of ISIS and AQIM/DNIM could create new risks not only for local governments, but also for the Russian military present in the Sahel countries. Let us recall that it was Russian PMCs (Wagner) that played the main role in the capture of Kidal in Mali in November 2023.

After this, they started talking about the possibilities of restoring ties between ISIS and AQIM/DNIM. Then a new group appeared on the scene: Wahdat al-Muslimin (Unity of Muslims), which called on warring terrorist organizations to unite against common enemies “to preserve the blood of Muslims.”

Wahdat al-Muslimeen is not a jihadist group per se, but rather a pro-jihadist (or simply anti-government) propaganda group that seeks to unite ISIS and AQIM/JNIM to fight local armies and their allies, including those from Russia.

This group is associated with local Fulani communities in the triangle between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. As already noted, representatives of this nationality feel alienated and stigmatized by the armies of the three countries in which they live. The local military often baselessly accuses all Fulanis of having links with terrorists, bringing down repression on them and thereby facilitating the transition of many Fulanis to these organizations.

Therefore, as both JNIM and ISIS-BS become more and more “Fulani” in their ethnic composition (Tuaregs, on the contrary, tend to move into more moderate groups), the threat of unification of the two groups on an ethnic basis remains.

This is an important example of the fact that any actions of the Russian military in Africa must be provided with appropriate expert and diplomatic support, taking into account all regional specifics and ethnic diversity.

The argument that since a certain group has raised this or that terrorist flag, it must be destroyed is not always adequate to local conditions. In reality, such a group can go through a whole chain of “ideological rebirths,” pursuing not religious, but purely tribal goals and objectives, and simply looking for allies among those who are able to protect this tribe or ethnic group from repression and discrimination.

This applies not only to the Fulani, but also to the Tuareg.

Terrorism in the Sahel is still identified with the Tuareg movement. Indeed, jihadist groups and Tuaregs fighting against states in the region are sometimes forced to cooperate with each other. However, jihadists and Tuaregs still should not be identified. They are temporary fellow travelers, sharply diverging in their ultimate goals.

Previously, jihadists had repeatedly knocked out the Tuaregs from their bases, and the Tuaregs, as noted, moved into more moderate movements.

In this regard, information about the nature of certain groups and factions coming from local authorities and the military must be carefully checked. Often, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, groups that are not related to terrorist activities can also be “purged.”

Instead of gaining new supporters in the fight against terrorism, this may lead to increased support for the terrorists themselves from ethnic groups subject to various forms of discrimination.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

The court sides with a convict from Chechnya in a dispute with the colony administration

2024-04-16

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The appellate instance did not satisfy the appeal of the colony administration against the decision of the Grozny court, which recognized violations of the rights of a native of Chechnya, Arbi Dandaev, who was convicted in the case of the attack of Basayev’s

... Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, also known by his kunya "Abu Idris" and Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idris (1965-2006). Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death became the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Russians hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria. Some of his projects were the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis...

militants on Dagestan.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the Supreme Court of Dagestan in March 2009 sentenced Chechen resident Arbi Dandaev to life imprisonment, recognizing that during the militant attack on Dagestan in 1999, Dandaev personally participated in the execution of six servicemen. The Supreme Court of Russia recognized the verdict as legal, and in August 2009 it entered into legal force.

On August 7, 1999, more than a thousand armed fighters led by Shamil Basayev and Jordanian Amir Khattab (also referred to as Emir Khattab) entered Dagestan from Chechnya. Fighting continued in the republic for more than a month; only on September 15, 1999, Defense Minister Igor Sergeev announced that the territory of Dagestan was completely liberated from the participants in the attack, according to the “Caucasian Knot” certificate “ Invasion of militants in Dagestan (1999) .”

The Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld the decision of the Visaitovsky District Court of Grozny dated June 28, 2022, which partially satisfied Arbi Dandaev’s claim against the colony in the Khabarovsk Territory. Dandaev demanded that the actions of the administration be declared illegal and that compensation be awarded to him for violating the conditions of detention; the district court’s decision was appealed by the colony’s management, as stated in the appeal ruling posted on the website of the Supreme Court of the Republic.

In his lawsuit, Arbi Dandaev stated that “the defendant violated the conditions of detention for a long time.” In particular, according to the document, the Constitution and the Chechen-Russian dictionary were confiscated from the convict, the electricity was turned off during the fasting month of Ramadan, his opportunities for watching films and videos and television programs were limited, and he was kept “in a metal cage during court hearings in a video conference room.” connections."

Arbi Dandaev demanded compensation of 500 thousand rubles. The court ordered the administration of colony No. 6 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Khabarovsk Territory to return to Dandaev the brochure “The Constitution of the Russian Federation” and the Chechen-Russian dictionary, declared the power outage during the month of Ramadan illegal and ordered the colony to pay Dandaev ten thousand rubles. The district court did not satisfy the remaining requirements, as indicated in the publication of the Supreme Court.

"In the appeal, the representative of PKU IK-6 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Khabarovsk Territory O.V. Shadrina asks the court to cancel the decision as illegal and unfounded, and to make a new decision in the case to refuse to satisfy the claims. In the court of appeal, A.Kh. Dandaev ., participating in the court hearing through the use of video conferencing systems, objected to the arguments of the complaint and asked the court’s decision to be left unchanged,” the document says.

Contrary to the arguments of the appeal, the district court, when determining the amount of compensation for violation of the conditions of detention of the convicted person, “took into account the nature and duration of the violations, the circumstances under which these violations were committed, the amount of compensation corresponds to the principle of reasonableness and fairness,” the Supreme Court indicated.

“The decision of the Visaitovsky District Court of the city of Grozny dated June 28, 2022 is left unchanged and the appeal is not satisfied,” the judge ruled.

Let us remind you that Arbi Dandaev has previously initiated litigation. So, in 2020, he demanded 300 thousand rubles as compensation for moral damages for prolonged detention in solitary confinement in a pre-trial detention center in Makhachkala in 2008-2009. The court refused to satisfy the claim, and Dandaev in a new claim changed the defendant from the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center to the department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Dagestan. In May 2022, the Kirov District Court of Makhachkala again rejected his claim.

In addition, Dandaev challenged the decision of the Grozny district court, which refused to recognize as illegal the decision of the leadership of the colony in the Sverdlovsk region to place Dandaev on preventive registration as prone to escape. In August 2022, the Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld the decision of the district court.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Two people charged in the case of Basayev's raid on Dagestan

2024-03-23

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The case of two people accused of participating in the attack of militants Basayev and Khattab on Dagestan in 1999 has been brought to court.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the detention of the alleged participants in the attack of the Basayev and Khattab group on Dagestan continues after almost a quarter of a century. Thus, in December 2023, the Investigative Committee reported that a native of Dagestan, Ibragim Magomedov, had been detained, whom investigators considered to be a participant in the attack of militants Basayev and Khattab on the republic in 1999.

On August 7, 1999, more than a thousand armed fighters from Chechnya entered the territory of Dagestan under the leadership of Shamil Basayev and Jordanian Amir Khattab. Fighting continued in the republic for more than a month. Only on September 15, 1999, the Minister of Defense announced that the territory of Dagestan had been completely liberated, according to the “Caucasian Knot” certificate “ Invasion of Militants in Dagestan (1999).”

The case of two people accused of attacking military personnel in the Botlikhsky district in 1999 was transferred to the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, the Prosecutor General's Office announced today.

“They are accused under Part 2 of Article 209 (participation in a stable armed group (gang), Article 279 (active participation in an armed rebellion for the purpose of forcibly changing the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation), Article 317 (attack on the lives of military personnel in for the purpose of obstructing the legitimate activities of these persons to protect public order and ensure public safety) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” says the publication on the department’s website.

According to investigators, the accused have been members since 1999 “of a gang created on the territory of the Chechen Republic by Basayev and Khattab.” “As part of which they participated in an armed rebellion in the area of the village of Rakhata, Botlikh district, where they attacked a military maneuver group,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Previously, the cases of more than 90 accused of the attack were also sent to court, some of them have already been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, the publication notes.

The cases of participation in the gangs of Basayev and Khattab are of the same type and are often falsified, lawyer Narine Airapetyan previously told the Caucasian Knot. "The witnesses are the same everywhere. Five witnesses are usually taken - three classified witnesses and two open," she said.

Hayrapetyan emphasized that cases are being fabricated against innocent people as well. “When people did not participate, but under threat, including torture, other people are forced to testify against them. <...> For example, one of my clients, who is currently serving a sentence in the Ulyanovsk region, told me that he was under pressure in order to force him to testify on the events of 1999 against people whom he had never known before,” the lawyer noted.

Link

India-Pakistan

CTD official links recent spate of targeted killings in Karachi to ‘enemy country’

2023-09-23

[Dawn] A Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official claimed on Friday that a series of murders carried out in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
in the past few months were linked to an "enemy country" and the police are closely examining the matter.

"This is assassination under a planned conspiracy," Raja Umar Khattab, a senior officer in the CTD, said in a statement.

While the official did not refer to specific murders or name a country in his statement, the remarks come weeks after the murders of two holy mans in separate attacks.

Ziaur Rehman, the administrator of the Jamia Abi Bakar madrassah in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, was murdered on September 12 and on September 6, Qari Khurram Shahzad, a seminary teacher was fatally shot in North Nazimabad.

The police had said then that they suspected the involvement of the Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW
... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man...
). They had said that the murders were ostensibly aimed to incite violence as they coincided with the arrival of the holy month of Rabiul Awwal.

The third month of the Moslem calender, when the faithful celebrate Mawlid, the birthday of the Prophet Moammed.

According to Khattab, the police were carrying closely examining the evidence, and soon the culprits and their accomplices would be tracked down.

The Karachi police had last week said: "CTD has collected evidence of the incident, while during the preliminary investigation, evidence of the involvement of the intelligence agency of our neighbouring country, RAW, has been found in the incident," it said, without elaborating further.

HOSTILE AGENCIES
RAW’s involvement was suspected in the killing of a Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
-linked person in Azad Jammu and Kashmir
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
’s Rawalakot area last week.

Late last month, the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
Inspector General (IG) Dr Usman Anwar said that the police had unearthed a "network of hostile intelligence agencies" that were allegedly involved in the recent incidents of blasphemy

...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran...
across the country.

On August 16, a ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful mob of hundreds ransacked and torched nearly two dozen churches and attacked the residences of members of the Christian community and the office of the local assistant commissioner in Jaranwala.

He said the aforementioned events were a "conspiracy" to "divert attention" from the communal festivities in India’s Manipur state.

But unlike the Indian state’s response, Anwar continued, Pak officials, civil society and scholars helped and supported Christian victims and spoke up against the injustice.

Riiiiight. A bit of protesting too much there, buddy.

Karachi police also arrested an alleged Indian spy and his local controller in Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
on August 23.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

A native of Ingushetia is suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack in Beslan

2023-09-02

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Law enforcement agencies named Aslanbek Parchiev, a native of Ingushetia, as one of the participants in the terrorist attack in Beslan in 2004.

…a project of Basayev’s post-Soviet, Al Qaeda-linked Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death two years later became the Al-Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate.

Relatives said they did not believe in his involvement in the attack.

As the " Caucasian Knot " has reported, today in Beslan there are mourning events on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the seizure of the school. People come to School No. 1 to lay flowers in memory of the victims of the 2004 terrorist attack.

On September 1, 2004, militants seized 1,128 hostages in the gymnasium of School No. 1 in Beslan. The operation to free them ended on September 3, 2004. As a result of the attack, 334 people were killed, including 186 children, and another 810 people were injured. The "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report " Terrorist act in Beslan (September 1-3, 2004) " and a chronicle of the terrorist act and the events that followed it.

Law enforcement agencies said they had identified one of the participants in the terrorist attack in Beslan in 2004 - it turned out to be Aslanbek Parchiev, a native of Ingushetia. For 19 years, Parchiev, whose identity has not yet been established, was listed in the documents in the case of the terrorist attack as "militant No. 11" - one of five terrorists whose corpses could not be identified then, Izvestia reported.

According to the publication, in May, investigators received information about the discovery of a match with the fingerprints of one of the unknown terrorists. “It was established that in May 2002 this person was brought to administrative responsibility in Moscow. His fingerprints were requested and a fingerprint forensic examination was carried out.", said Albert Khasauov, senior investigator for especially important cases of the Investigative Committee for the North Caucasus Federal District.

The conclusions of the investigation were confirmed by a DNA test taken from his relatives. Parchiev was also identified by the only surviving militant, Nurpasha Kulaev, who is serving a life sentence. In an interview, he said that he was forced to take up arms. However, the victims of the attack were unable to identify Parchiev from the photo.

According to Khasauov, Parchiev's relatives have not seen him since 2003. And during the last meeting, he said that he was leaving for Kazakhstan to work.

“He was 32 years old when he left home to work. He was not married. He dropped out of college, although his parents dreamed that he would continue the family profession of a doctor,” said older sister Marina Parchieva.

The younger sister Zareta Parchiev added that her brother was hit hard by his father, who, in a fit of aggression, often broke down on his son. "Maybe that's why he left home then," she said.

Both Parchiev sisters said they did not believe in the version that their brother was a terrorist and participated in the seizure of a school in Beslan. "He would never do something like that for some idea or money," said Marina Parchieva.

Documents on the complete match of DNA, both women signed.

Recall that only 14 years after the tragedy, in December 2018, the presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District announced the first official recognition since the terrorist attack that the storming of the school was planned from the beginning, despite the protests of local residents. The presidential envoy also confirmed that the school was fired from a tank.

In 2019, on the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attack, the book Outpost. Beslan and Its Hostages was published, written by Olga Allenova, a journalist for the Kommersant publication. The author then told the "Caucasian Knot" blogger Alan Tskhurbaev that this is a book about a tragedy that is still "not lived through by our society, not comprehended, because there were and remain many lies about this terrorist attack," and therefore, "there is no hope that it won't happen again."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Four injured in clashes between two SNA factions in northern Raqqa

2023-06-27

[NPASyria] Four people, including two civilians, were maimed in ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful festivities that erupted between two opposition factions of the ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in a town in northern Raqqa.

An SNA military source told North Press, "Clashes occurred between the SNA factions of Suqour al-Shamal and Kataib al-Khattab in the middle of the town of Suluk, in northern Raqqa."

The source added that the festivities took place near a post of the SNA’s Military Police and resulted in the injury of two civilians, including a woman, in addition to two members of the Kataib al-Khattab faction.

The source noted that the dispute arose after Kataib al-Khattab seized a fuel truck belonging to a leader in Suqour al-Shamal at the Tufaha crossing upon its arrival from Raqqa.

The source pointed out that heavy machine guns and RPG-7s were used near the Military Police post without the latter doing anything to stop the festivities.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

The case of the participation of residents of Stavropol and Chechnya in Basayev's attack on Dagestan reached the court

2023-06-07

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The case of a resident of Stavropol Territory Albert Elakaev and a resident of Chechnya Alimkhan Musaev, whom investigators consider to be participants in the attack on the Botlikh district of Dagestan in 1999, has been sent to court.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in September 2021, the investigation reported on the detention of natives of the Stavropol Territory Albert Elakaev and Alimkhan Musaev in the case of the attack by the Basaev and Khattab group on Dagestan in 1999.

On August 7, 1999, more than a thousand armed fighters from Chechnya entered the territory of Dagestan under the leadership of Shamil Basayev

...a.k.a.Shamil Basaev, Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, his kunya "Abu Idris" and Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idris (1965-2006). Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, linked to Al Qaeda. After his death it became the Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Russians hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria, where those not dead yet remain. Some of his projects were the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis. In 2003, the US State Department designated three Chechen groups affiliated with Shamil Basaev as terrorists, accusing them of receiving millions of dollars from Al Qaeda...

and Jordanian Amir Khattab.

Habib Abdur Rehman Khattab, a Saudi by birth, according to our archives — which does not mean he wasn’t also Jordanian as lots of families sprawl across the Arab world — was head of the International Islamic Brigade, which took part in the first Chechen war in 1994. As a teen, Khattab had fought in Afghanistan alongside Osama bin Laden, then drifted to Tajikistan, where he became a brilliant commander before moving to Chechnya to be operations commander under Basaev and was his direct connection to Bin Laden. Russian intelligence killed him in Chechnya in 2002.

Fighting continued in the republic for more than a month. Only on September 15, 1999, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev reported that the territory of Dagestan had been completely liberated, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Invasion of militants into Dagestan (1999)."

Investigations of criminal cases against "residents of the Stavropol Territory Albert Elakaev and the Chechen Republic Alimkhan Musaev" have been completed. They are accused of participating in a stable armed group (gang) and armed rebellion, as well as encroachment on the lives of servicemen, the Russian Investigative Committee said today.

According to the investigation, in August 1999, Elakaev and Musaev, "acting as part of a stable armed group under the general leadership of Shamil Basaev and Emir Khattab, took an active part in an armed rebellion" and "committed an encroachment on the lives of servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian Federation," the statement says. in today's post on the department's website.

The cases of participation in the gangs of Basayev and Khattab are of the same type and are often falsified, lawyer Narine Hayrapetyan told the "Caucasian Knot" earlier. "Witnesses are the same everywhere. Five witnesses are usually taken - three secret witnesses and two open ones," the lawyer explained. She stressed that these cases are also fabricated against the innocent, when "under threat, including torture, other people are forced to testify against them."

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

A resident of Nalchik was sentenced to a long term for swearing an oath to the leader of the Caucasus Emirate

2023-05-27

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A court in Rostov-on-Don found Khabibulla Isaratov guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization and sentenced him to 10.5 years in prison. According to the investigation and the court, while in Nalchik, Isaratov swore an oath to the leader of the Caucasus Emirate*.

Khabibulla Isaratov was found guilty of activities of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation, the press service of the Southern District Military Court reported today.

"It was established that on March 21, 2022, in the city of Nalchik, he joined the banned terrorist organization" Emarat Kavkaz, recorded the process of taking the oath to its leader on camera and sent the recording via the Internet.

The court sentenced Isaratov to 10.5 years in a strict regime colony, the first two years and six months of his term he must serve in prison, according to a message on the Telegram channel of the Southern District Military Court.

The case went to court on September 30, 2022, 17 meetings were held, the verdict was delivered today, indicated in the case card on the court website.

As follows from the data in the list of extremists and terrorists on the Rosfinmonitoring website, Khabibulla Isaratov is from Orel, he is 19 years old.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 7, 2007, the President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) Dokku Umarov announced the creation of the "Caucasus Emirate" in his address.

In June 2015, militants belonging to the structural subdivisions of the Caucasus Emirate* swore allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State* terrorist organization banned in Russia by a court, Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to the Caucasian Knot material, Caucasus Emirate * . After the oath to the leader of the IS militants from the structural divisions of the "Caucasus Emirate"

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

A resident of Nalchik was sentenced to a long term for swearing an oath to the leader of the Caucasus Emirate

2023-05-24

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A court in Rostov-on-Don found Khabibulla Isaratov guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization and sentenced him to 10.5 years in prison. According to the investigation and the court, while in Nalchik, Isaratov swore an oath to the leader of the Caucasus Emirate*.

Khabibulla Isaratov was found guilty of activities of a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation, the press service of the Southern District Military Court reported today.

"It was established that on March 21, 2022, in the city of Nalchik, he joined the banned terrorist organization," Emarat Kavkaz, recorded the process of taking the oath to its leader on camera and sent the recording via the Internet.

The court sentenced Isaratov to 10.5 years in a strict regime colony, the first two years and six months of his term he must serve in prison, according to a message on the Telegram channel of the Southern District Military Court.

The case went to court on September 30, 2022, 17 meetings were held, the verdict was delivered today, indicated in the case card on the court website.

As follows from the data in the list of extremists and terrorists on the Rosfinmonitoring website, Khabibulla Isaratov is from Orel, he is 19 years old.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 7, 2007, the President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) Dokku Umarov announced the creation of the "Caucasus Emirate" in his address . In June 2015, militants belonging to the structural subdivisions of the Caucasus Emirate* swore allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State* terrorist organization banned in Russia by a court, Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to the Caucasian Knot material, Caucasus Emirate * . After the oath to the leader of the ISIS militants from the structural divisions of the "Caucasus Emirate."

Link

Afghanistan

Daily Evacuation Brief April 29, 2023

2023-04-29

[AfghanDigest] LAST 24 HOURS

THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL SANCTIONS 2 ADDITIONAL ISIS-K LEADERS FOR ROLES IN KABUL AIRPORT BOMBING IN 2021 – ISIS-K spokesman Aziz Azam and Maulawi Rajab (a leader) were sanctioned on Wednesday during a UNSC committee meeting. Both are Afghan nationals and their current locations are unknown.

A SERIES OF ATTACKS IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA SEEN AS A RIPOSTE TO GOVERNMENT COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS – In the span of an hour, 6 separate attacks took place in Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Tank, and North Waziristan Districts. The timing and targets of the attacks suggest a coordinated and detailed planning effort among the TTP and potentially other terrorist organizations. Sources in Pakistan say the barrage was meant to send a message to the people of Pakistan that these groups were far from being defeated. Several casualties have been reported on both sides but the information is jumbled and will take some time to unravel. Security forces remained active throughout the night and a source says they have cornered approximately 15 militants (said to be TTP) in an undisclosed location.

CSTO WORKING GROUP ON AFGHANISTAN MEETING CONCLUDES – The member states released a joint statement that voiced concerns over ‘unfavorable trends in the security situation’ in Afghanistan. Of particular concern was the perceived growth of both terrorist and narcotics organizations. The chief spokesman for the Taliban rejected the statement by the CSTO and contends the country is now safer than at any time in recent history. The meeting marked the 37th time the nations have met to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

RESISTANCE OPERATION REPORTED YESTERDAY IN NANGARHAR ATTRIBUTED TO THE AFGHANISTAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT – The operation reported in yesterday’s Conflict Tracker that is thought to have taken place near Torkham and which resulted in the deaths of 6 Taliban (5 others wounded) was planned and carried out by the ALM. The group is said to be currently conducting follow-up operations against several Taliban security checkpoints in the Province. The ALM has been fairly successful with its military operations so far in 2023 and appears to be the most active Resistance group since January.

COVID-19 RESURGENCE A CONCERN FOR HEALTH WORKERS – Some independent sources have alleged that 1,500 cases were lodged in the past week alone. A resurgence of the pandemic in Afghanistan is thought to be a worst-case scenario for the populace as nutrition has suffered from the precarious economic situation in the country over the past 19 months and many believe that people are more vulnerable. The situation could rapidly worsen as health workers are in short supply and treatment facilities have been described as ‘hollow buildings that are more like morgues than hospitals’. The ban on female aid workers has severely hobbled the abilities of international aid agencies to respond to a new and deadly wave of the virus.

CONFLICT TRACKER
Zabul: A team from the Afghanistan Liberation Movement (ALM) is said to have ambushed the Taliban police commander of Shahjoy (Maulvi Khattab) and killed him as he was journeying to Ghazni.

NEXT 24 HOURS
RESISTANCE GROUPS FOCUSING EFFORTS ON TALIBAN SECURITY CHECKPOINTS – Some Resistance groups have stated intentions to launch fresh attacks against Taliban security checkpoints in the coming days. It is believed that most of these attacks will focus on vehicle checkpoints along roads and will not take place in urban areas. A source with one Resistance group says the Taliban have become complacent in many of these postings and have not made security improvements over the winter months. The source went on to say that many of the security vehicles in use have begun to break down and a shortage of batteries had caused the Taliban to steal batteries from non-combatants in some areas. A decision had been made to conduct hit-and-run operations against these dispersed locations. At-risk Afghans who may be traveling along these routes should avoid stopping at the checkpoints for a prolonged period of time.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Three security officials from Chechnya convicted in the case of the terrorist attack in Znamenskoye

2023-04-22

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Rustam Buluev, Ruslan Namatov and Artur Ushaev, former employees of the antiterrorist center of Chechnya, were sentenced to long terms on charges of committing a terrorist act in the village of Znamenskoye in 2005.

The "Caucasian Knot" wrote that in 2021, the case of three residents of Chechnya, accused in the case of a terrorist attack in the village of Znamenskoye, was sent to court. The defendants were charged with banditry, terrorism, encroachment on the lives of security officials, murder and attempted murder of two or more persons committed in a generally dangerous way by an organized group, illegal storage and transportation of explosive devices, and two of them were also charged with kidnapping.

On July 19, 2005, in the village of Znamenskoye, Nadterechny district of Chechnya, 15 people were killed, including a woman and two young boys, when a UAZ car filled with explosives was blown up. Another 24 local residents were injured, the security forces said at the time.

Ali Agamerzoev and Aslambek Vitrigov, natives of the Vedeno district, were detained on suspicion of involvement in the incident. Ayub Tuntuev, 29, who was later detained, was accused of organizing the attack. According to Tuntuev's testimony, the attack was ordered by Shamil Basaev ,

...also in our archives as Shamil Basayev, more formally Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, also known by his kunya "Abu Idris" and Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idris (1965-2006). Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death became the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Russians hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria. Some of his projects were the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis. In 2003, the US State Department designated three Chechen groups affiliated with Shamil Basaev as terrorists, accusing them of receiving millions of dollars from Al Qaeda...

who promised to pay the perpetrators of this action a thousand dollars, the Chechen Interior Ministry said in August 2005.

The Southern District Military Court sentenced three former employees of the anti-terrorist center of Chechnya, Rustam Buluev, Ruslan Namatov and Artur Ushaev, accused of a terrorist attack in the village of Znamenskoye (Chechnya) in July 2005.

"Taking into account the position of the public prosecutor on the guilt of the defendants, the court sentenced them to imprisonment for a term of 21 to 24 years to be served in a strict regime colony," the press service of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts reported today.

The court sentenced Buluev to 21 years in prison, Namatov to 23 years in prison, and Ushaev to 24 years in prison. They will serve their sentence in a strict regime penal colony. Earlier, other participants Agamerzaev, Vitrigov and Tuntuev were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, the Russian Investigative Committee said today.

As follows from the case file on the court website, Buluev and Namatov were accused of kidnapping, the verdict on the defendants was announced today.

Former member of the security service of the President of Chechnya, Ayub Tuntuev, was sentenced in 2008 to 24 years in prison on charges of involvement in the case of a terrorist attack in 2005 in the Chechen regional center of Znamenskoye.

In May 2016, an appeal against this sentence was filed with the ECtHR, and on June 1, 2017, it was communicated. The complaint states that on May 27, 2015, under torture, Tuntuev was forced to sign a statement in which he admitted his participation in military operations against the federal armed forces in Chechnya from 1994 to 2005 and in an armed clash in the summer of 1999 in the Botlikh region Dagestan.

In 2017, he was found guilty in the case of the attack on the Pskov paratroopers in 2000, the court, taking into account the old sentence, sentenced him to 24 years and 11 months in a strict regime colony.

Artur Ushaev was previously sentenced to 19 years in prison, and Ruslan Namatov to 18 years in the case of an attack on Pskov paratroopers.

On the night of March 1, 2000, soldiers of the sixth company of the 104th regiment of the 76th Guards Airborne Division entered into battle in Chechnya with a large detachment of Shamil Basayev and Khattab. For about a day, the company held back the onslaught of about 2,000 militants who tried to break out of the encirclement.

Then, 84 out of 90 servicemen died, 370 militants were killed. Among the reasons for the tragedy, analysts name corruption and incompetence of the command and officers, according to the information of the "Caucasian Knot" "Fight for Hill 776: how the Pskov paratroopers died."

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Participant in the attack on policemen in Chechnya received a life sentence

2023-04-14

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel]

A participant in an attack by militants on the Perm OMON in Chechnya in 2000 was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in August 2022, the court sentenced Maxim Ponaryin, a native of Stavropol Territory, to life imprisonment, recognizing him as one of the participants in the attack on the convoy of the Perm OMON in the Vedensky district in 2000.

Rashid Atuov, a native of Karachay-Cherkessia, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the same charge. In November 2022, a court in Chechnya added to them 12.5 years in prison, appointing Ponaryin the final sentence of life imprisonment, and Atuov 20 years in prison.

On March 29, 2000, near the village of Dzhani-Vedeno in the Vedensky district of Chechnya, about 200 militants attacked a convoy of employees of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region and military personnel of the local commandant's office. A total of 33 law enforcement and military officers were killed, captured and subsequently killed another 10 police officers of the Perm region. On July 5, 2002, a memorial was opened in Perm in memory of the fallen security officials and military.

The Supreme Court of Chechnya convicted a man accused of participating in the attack on the Perm riot police in 2000 and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a special regime colony, the Prosecutor General's Office announced today.

"The court found that the accused, acting as part of an armed gang under the general leadership of Shamil Basayev and Khattab, in March 2000, during an armed rebellion near the village of Dzhani-Vedeno, Vedeno district of the Chechen Republic, committed an encroachment on the lives of employees of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region and military personnel commandant's office of the Vedeno district," the publication on the department's website says.

The man, whose name is not indicated in the message, was found guilty under Art. 279 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (active participation in an armed rebellion for the purpose of forcibly changing the constitutional order and violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation) and Art. 317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (encroachment on the life of law enforcement officers and a military man).

"The indictment in the criminal case was approved by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. […] Previously, the courts of the North Caucasus Federal District sentenced seven more members of the criminal community to long terms of imprisonment for committing this crime," the report says.

Link

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