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  • Chechen Al Qaeda Commander, Popular Saudi Cleric, And An Ahrar Al Sh

    CHECHEN AL QAEDA COMMANDER, POPULAR SAUDI CLERIC, AND AN AHRAR AL SHAM LEADER SPOTTED ON FRONT LINES IN LATAKIA

    Long War Journal
    April 2 2014

    By Bill RoggioMarch 27, 2014

    A prominent Saudi cleric and a Chechen military commander in a unit
    of the Al Nusrah Front for the People in the Levant, al Qaeda's
    official branch in Syria, celebrated together after recent heavy
    fighting against Syrian government forces in a mountainous area in
    the coastal province of Latakia. An emir of Ahrar al Sham is also
    seen in the video.

    Muslim al Shishani, a Chechen jihadist and Al Nusrah military
    commander, is seen in a video with Dr. Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini,
    an al Qaeda-linked Saudi cleric, after the Al Nusrah Front overran
    a Syrian military position in the eastern province. The video was
    posted on YouTube on March 26.

    In the video, hundreds of jihadists are shown walking around the
    captured outpost as fires, presumably caused by the the fighting,
    are still burning. A tank and a pickup truck with a machine gun
    mounted in the bed are seen in the background. Gunfire is heard,
    but it sounds celebratory.

    The camera follows the red-bearded Muslim as he praises the jihadists
    for defeating Syrian forces. At 0:58, the video pauses as Muslim is
    pictured with another Chechen commander, Abu Tarab al Shishani. The
    video then pauses again at 1:02 as Muslim and Muhaysini embrace.

    The video again pauses at 1:53 and Abu Tarab al Shishani is seen
    embracing with the "Leader of Ahrar al Sham: Abu al Hassan", one of
    the leading groups in the Islamic Front. Senior al Qaeda leaders are
    known to have served in the top leadership circles of Ahrar al Sham.

    The Al Nusrah Front has allied with Ahrar al Sham and a Salafist
    group known as Ansar al Sham, in an offensive to take control of
    areas in Latakia. The jihadist groups have seized a coastal village,
    "the Armenian Christian village of Kasab," and a border crossing with
    Turkey, according to Reuters.

    Muhaysini, the Saudi cleric who moved to Syria in 2013 and has more
    than 240,000 followers on Twitter, has publicly supported the position
    of the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front in their dispute with the
    Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. When he launched an initiative in
    January to reconcile the groups by creating a sharia court to settle
    disputes, Muhaysini cited al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri. In February,
    after the ISIS rejected his plan, Muhaysini called on ISIS fighters
    and leaders to defect and join the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic
    Front. [See LWJ reports, Popular Saudi cleric endorses Islamic Front,
    calls for cooperation with al Qaeda; Saudi cleric's reconciliation
    initiative for jihadists draws wide support, then a rejection; and
    Pro-al Qaeda Saudi cleric calls on ISIS members to defect.]

    Muslim al Shishani has been waging jihad for three decades, according
    to a video biography that was released in November 2013 and translated
    by MEMRI.

    Muslim "served in the air defense division of the Soviet army in
    Moldova" before the collapse of the Soviet Union, MEMRI reported.

    Afterwards he joined the jihad in Chechnya and fought alongside Ibn
    Khattab, a Saudi who led al Qaeda's International Islamic Brigade in
    Chechnya before he was assassinated by Russian forces in 2002.

    "He worked with many leading figures in the Chechen-Arab units,
    including Abu Jafar and Ibn Khattab's successor Abu al Walid, and was
    eventually promoted to the position of field commander," according to
    MEMRI. He was captured by Russian forces in 2003 and released after
    two-and-a-half years in detention. In 2008, he formed a fighting unit
    in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. He had sworn allegiance to Doku
    Umarov, the slain emir of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Caucasus Emirate.

    In 2012, Muslim left the Caucasus to wage jihad in Syria and led
    a group known as Jund al Sham, or the Army of Syria. His group,
    along with those under the command of Saifullah al Shishani and
    another Chechen known as Abu Walid al Shishani, merged with the Al
    Nusrah Front.

    Chechen-led jihadist groups have been some of the fiercest units in
    the Syrian civil war. Chechens and others from the Russian Caucasus
    and even from the Ukraine hold prominent positions in jihadist units
    fighting in Syria. Omar al Shishani commands fighters in the ISIS and
    his fighters are routinely in the forefront of the fighting. Another
    Chechen, Salahuddin al Shishani, serves as the emir of the Muhajireen
    Army; his deputy is Abdul Karim Krymsky, a Crimean Tatar from the
    Ukraine. Hundreds of fighters from the Caucasus and Russia are known to
    fight in the ranks of the jihadist groups in Syria that are commanded
    by Chechen leaders.

    Two senior Chechen commanders, Saifullah al Shishani and Muhammad
    al Shishani, have been killed so far this year while fighting Syrian
    government forces in Aleppo.

    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/03/chechen_al_qaeda_com.php?utm_source=rss&utm_medium =rss&utm_campaign=chechen-al-qaeda-commander-popular-saudi-cleric-spotted-on-front-lines-in-latakia




    From: A. Papazian
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