| Syrian Desert campaign (December 2017–present) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Syria Russia IranAllied groups  Hezbollah Popular Mobilization Forces[1] Islamic Resistance in Iraq Liwa Fatemiyoun Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas Free Palestine Movement[2] Palestine Liberation Army[3] |  Islamic State | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Gen. Ali Muhammad al-Hussein † Maj. Gen. Suhayl al-Hasan (WIA)[8] "Abu Hussian" Haj Nasser Jamil Hadraj † | Abu Abdallah Sheikh Qaduli (Top IS commander in the Syrian Desert)[9] | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Kata'ib HezbollahKata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada "Al-Qatarji" militia "Hamisho" militia Qamr Bani Hashim Division[14] | Military of the Islamic State | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown number of SAA soldiers 1,385 IRGC-led fighters[15] | 2,000–3,000[16] 300 reinforcements (Feb. 2019)[12] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 237 killed (2018 IS offensive)[17] 9 killed (2018 IS offensive)[17] 1,666 killed (24 March 2019- August 2023)[18][19] 192 killed (since 24 March 2019- August 2023)[18] 5 killed (24 March 2019-August 2023)[20][18] Total: 2,168+ killed | 138 killed (2018 IS offensive)[17] 1,148 killed (24 March 2019- August 2023)[18] Total: 1,285+ killed | ||||||||
| 161 civilians killed by IS (24 March 2019- August 2023)[21][19] Total: 3,675+ killed | |||||||||
The Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus is ongoing terror activity of the Islamic State branch in the North Caucasus after the insurgency of the Caucasus Emirate.
Background
In the late 2015, the Caucasus Emirate, a jihadist group aimed to establish an independent Islamic emirate in the North Caucasus, was severely weakened due to the series of killings of its leaders by Russian security forces. This led several high–ranking members of Caucasus Emirate to pledge their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who at the time was the leader of the transnational Islamist militant organisation Islamic State (IS).[22] On 23 June 2015, IS's spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani accepted these pledges and announced the creation of a new Province, covering the North Caucasus region. Adnani named Rustam Asildarov as the governor of this province and called on other militants in the region to follow him.[23][24]The first attack of the group occurred on a Russian military base in southern Dagestan on 2 September 2015.[25] In a video released in the same month, Asildarov called on IS supporters in the Caucasus to join the fight there, rather than travel to Iraq and Syria.[26]In December 2016, Asildarov was killed by security forces. By the end of 2017, most of the subversive and militant groups operating in North Caucasus were eliminated. On 19 December 2017, the Insurgency in the North Caucasus was officially declared over, when FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov announced the final elimination of the insurgent underground in the region.[27][28]The Caucasus Province was largely defeated as the organized force, leaving a lot of underground groups to continue the insurgency.
Timeline
2017
On 20 December, a 25-year-old militant was shot dead by a SOBR operator after he blew up an explosive device in an apartment building in Stavropol. According to authorities, he was a member of the "Zelenchukskaya" group, which pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State. Five members of the group were previously killed by security forces in Karachay-Cherkessia on 18 December.[29]
On 27 December, an explosion in Saint Petersburg supermarket injured thirteen civilians. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the incident.[30]
2018
On January 3, Abubakar Ustarkhanov, head of a local police department, was shot and killed in Avtury, Chechnya by a former law enforecement officer Khamzat Baymuradov. After the murder, Baymuradov tried to escape in Ustarkhanov's car, but was eventually chased down and killed in a shootout with security forces. In the past, Baymuradov was tried for helping militants.[31][32]
On 15 January, security forces reported that 46-year-old Alexei Omaev was killed after he oppened fire on policemen in Kaspiysk. According to them, Omaev was "suspected of helping militants and recruiting young people into the ranks of the Islamic State". Omaev's relatives doubted his attack, saying that he was partially paralyzed after a stabbing attack that occured ten years prior to the incident.[33]
On 10 February, two militants, Abdulla Askhabov and Yunus Ibadiev, were killed by security forces in counterterrorism operation in Ingushetia. Askhabov was reported to be fighting in the Syrian civil war on the side of the Islamic State.[34]
On 15 February, two militants, including a leader of the "Kharachi" criminal group, and one member of National Guard (Rosgvardiya) special forces was killed and four other were wounded in Dagestan during another security operation.[35][36]
On 18 February, 23-year-old Khalil Khalilov oppened fire in a church in Kizlyar, Dagestan, killing five civillians and wounding four people, including two Rosgvardiya members. He was killed by security forces while trying to escape. Khalilov was reported to be a member of an IS sleeper cell.[37][38]
On 20 March, four militants were killed by security forces in Chechnya.[39] On the same day, an IS member was killed in Grozny after he assaulted and wounded a police officer with a firearm.[40]
On 24 March, Yunus Khabibov, head of a small criminal group connected to the IS, was killed in a shootout with security forces.[41]
On 21 April, Russian authorities reported that nine militiats were killed and one special forces member was slightly wounded after security forces raided two separate buildings in the city of Derbent, Dagestan.[42]
Апрель
From the end of the Insurgency in the North Caucasus, the most violent terrorist attack perpetrated by the Islamic State in Russia was the mass shooting into a church in Kizlyar on 18 February 2018 causing six deaths (including the perpetrator) and 4 injured.[43]On 21 April 2018, in a clash between Russian security forces and IS, nine IS militants were killed in Dagestan.[44]On 20 August 2018, IS launched attacks in Chechnya, injuring a number of policemen; five suspected IS members were killed.[45]On 31 December 2018, an apartment block collapse in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The collapse, caused by a terrorist attack by ISIS-CP, killed 39 people and injured 17 more. [46]On 24 January 2019, IS attacked a police post, leaving four IS members killed and one policeman injured in Kabardino-Balkaria.[47] On July 1, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack on a police officer at a checkpoint in the Achkhoy-Martonovsky district of Chechnya, who was stabbed to death. The attacker was shot and killed as he threw a grenade at other officers.[48]On 20 January 2021, Aslan Byutukayev, also known as Emir Khamzat and Abubakar, a Chechen insurgent commander of the Islamic State, was killed alongside five other IS militants in a special operation launched by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya in Katyr-Yurt, Chechnya; four soldiers were injured.[49]
Notes
References
Vladislav Leontyev
Vladislav Leontyev | |
|---|---|
Владислав Леонтьев | |
| Born | Vladislav Vladimirovich Leontyev 5 July 1971 Gorky, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 18 December 2020 (aged 49) |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Resting place | Fedyakovo cemetery, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Other names |
|
| Citizenship | |
| Occupation(s) | Russian "thief in law", alleged key member in the Brothers' Circle |
Vladislav Vladimirovich Leontyev (Russian: Владислав Владимирович Леонтьев; 5 July 1971 – 18 December 2020),[1] nicknamed "White" (Russian: Белый, romanized: Bely) and "Blonde" (Russian: Белобрысый, romanized: Belobrysy) along with several other aliases, was a high-ranking Russian gangster and "thief in law" linked to organized crime, such as drug trafficking, embezzlement, fraud, extortion and car theft. According to the United States, Leontyev was a leader of the Brothers' Circle, an alleged transnational crime organization[2] In 2012 the United States Department of the Treasury Obama administration of the United States imposed sanctions on Leontyev as a central figure in the Brothers' Circle, a transnational crime organization, along with six other men linked to various syndicates tied into the Circle, and Japanese yakuza leaders Kenichi Shinoda and Kiyoshi Takayama.[3] 1234567891011121314