Caucasus Emirate Launches Suicide Assault On Chechen Parliament

From The Long War Journal:


Caucasus Emirate launches suicide assault on Chechen parliament

By Bill RoggioOctober 19, 2010





The al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate launched a suicide assault on the Chechen parliament in the capital of Grozny this morning. The suicide team penetrated security and entered the building before being killed by security forces.



The suicide assault team, estimated at between four to six fighters strong, entered the security perimeter in a vehicle by following cars that were transporting members of parliament. The terrorist assault team dismounted the vehicle, and one of the fighters detonated a suicide vest.



The other members of the assault team then opened fire and stormed the parliament building. They reached the fourth floor of the building, then holed up and reportedly took hostages. Chechen security forces then assaulted the terrorist team, and killed two fighters, while the other fighter detonated his suicide vest. Four policemen were killed in the fighting, and 17 people, including 10 policemen, were reported to have been wounded.



Security officials are still uncertain on the exact size of the assault team, and believe there may be at least two other gunmen on the loose.



"There could have been five or six people," a security official told ITAR-TASS. "And we must search the whole neighborhood looking for accomplices or explosive devices.”



The Caucasus Emirate has yet to officially take credit for the attack, but the mode of the attack - suicide bombers and armed fighters - matches previous strikes by the terror group. The Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyr Brigade, the specially trained suicide teams of the Caucasus Emirate, have carried out similar attacks in southern Russia.



The last such attack took place on Aug. 29, when a unit, estimated as having between 12 to 60 fighters from the Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyr Brigade, stormed the village of Tsentoroi, the birthplace of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. Police ultimately defeated the assault after several hours of heavy fighting.



Today's suicide assault in Chechnya is the latest in a string of such attacks by al Qaeda and its affiliates. Suicide assaults by heavily armed teams of fighters wearing vests have been carried out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and India. The November 2008 terror assault in Mumbai, India, resulted in the deaths of more than 170 people, and the attack shut down India's financial capital for more than 60 hours.



Today's assault takes place as Caucasus Emirate Emir Doku Umarov is attempting to reassert full control over his group. Several regional commanders, spurred on by an Arab military commander named Muhannad, convinced Umarov to resign in late July. But Umarov retracted his resignation days later after top leaders of the Caucasus Emirate convinced him he was not able to do so. Top commanders and religious figures have since rallied around Umarov. The suicide assault on the Chechen Parliament should help increase Umarov's stature with the terror group.



Background on Russia's battle against al Qaeda and allied groups in the Caucasus



Over the past two decades, al Qaeda has fought alongside Chechen rebels during two brutal wars against the Russians that are thought to have resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 civilians and thousands of Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters. The bulk of the Chechen resistance was smashed after the Second Chechen War, but al Qaeda and allied Islamist groups continued to operate, and managed to radicalize many of the remaining nationalist rebels.



Russian security forces, backed by local forces in the Caucasus, have had success in decapitating the top leadership of al Qaeda and radical Chechen forces. After killing Ibn al Khattab in 2002, security forces eliminated his successors; Abu Walid al Ghamdi was killed in 2004, and Abu Hafs al Urdani was killed in 2006.



Russian security forces also killed Saif al Islam al Masri, a member of al Qaeda's shura and a chief financier, in 2002; and Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Saif al Tamimi (also known as Abu Omar Saif) in 2005. Tamimi served as second in command to Shamil Basayev, the military commander for the Islamic Army in the Caucasus. In 2006, Basayev and much of his leadership cadre were killed by Russian security forces.



After Basayev's death in 2006, the Chechen and Caucasus jihadists united under the command of Doku Umarov, one of the last remaining original leaders of the Chechen rebellion and a close associate of al Qaeda. Prior to 2006, Umarov had denied having connections with al Qaeda and rejected terrorist attacks against civilians. But in 2006, Abu Hafs al Urduni announced that the Chechen jihad was being reorganized under the command of Doku Umarov after the death Basayev. By November 2007, Umarov had declared an Islamic emirate in the greater Caucasus region and named himself the emir, or leader. Russian security forces thought Umarov was killed during a raid in November 2009 that killed several of his close aides, but he has since resurfaced.



But the insurgency in the Caucasus largely went dormant after Basayev's death in 2006. In the spring of 2009, Umarov reignited the insurgency by launching a wave of suicide attacks in the Caucasus. In April 2009, Umarov revived the Riyad-us-Saliheen martyr brigade, which has spearheaded the assault.



"Riyad [the Riyad-us-Saliheen martyr brigade] is believed to be descended from two other Chechen terrorist organizations led by Basayev, the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) and the International Islamic Brigade (IIB)," according to the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism database. "It has even been suggested that Riyad is simply the result of the marriage of these two groups."



The Caucasus Emirate's most recent high-profile suicide operations include: the double suicide attack in Moscow's Metro on March 29 (39 people killed); a double suicide attack that targeted police in the city of Kizlyar in Dagestan on March 31 (13 people killed); a suicide attack at a concert in Starvopol on May 26 (seven killed); the assault on Kadyrov's home village of Tsentoroi in Chechnya on Aug. 29 (16 killed); and the Sept. 9 suicide attack in Vladikavkaz (16 killed).



Russia's Federal Security Service has targeted the Caucasus Emirate's top leaders during raids this year. Five top commanders have been killed or captured since February, including two foreign leaders.



On Feb. 2, the FSB killed Mokhmad Mohamad Shabban during a raid in a mountainous region in Dagestan. Shabban, an Egyptian who was better known as Saif Islam or the Sword of Islam, was one of the founders of al Qaeda in the Caucasus.



On March 2, FSB commandos killed Said Buryatsky and five other terrorists during a raid in Ingushetia. Buryatsky was the mufti, or religious leader, for the Caucasus Emirate, and has been described as Russia's Osama bin Laden.



On June 9, the FSB captured Emir Magas, the military commander of the Caucasus Emirate. Magas was a longtime associate of Basayev and Ibn al Khattab. One day later Russian forces killed Yasir Amarat, a wanted terrorist commander from Jordan.



And on Aug. 22, security forces killed Emir Sayfullah, the top judicial figure for the terror group who also served as the emir of forces in Dagestan, one of the most active theaters in the Caucasus.





Sources:



• Four gunmen storming Chechen parliament killed: official, ITAR-TASS

• Deadly attack on Chechen parliament raises fears of new violence, RIA Novosty

• Rebels stage suicide attack on Chechen parliament, Reuters













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