WORLD_ The face of ISIS: Young, red-bearded Chechen leads the charge to establish an Islamic state in Syria and Iraq

The face of ISIS: Young, red-bearded Chechen leads the charge to establish an Islamic state in Syria and Iraq

Associated Press
07.01.2014
ottawacitizen.com

BEIRUT — A young, red-bearded ethnic Chechen has rapidly become one of the most prominent commanders in the breakaway Al-Qaeda group that has overrun swaths of Iraq and Syria, illustrating the international nature of the movement.

Omar Al-Shishani, one of hundreds of Chechens who have been among the toughest jihadi fighters in Syria, has emerged as the face of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), appearing frequently in its online videos — in contrast to the group’s Iraqi leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who remains deep in hiding and has hardly ever been photographed.

In a video released by the group over the weekend, Mr. Al-Shishani is shown standing next to the group’s spokesman among a group of fighters as they declare the elimination of the border between Iraq and Syria. The video was released just hours before the extremist group announced the creation of a caliphate — or Islamic state — in the areas it controls.

“Our aim is clear and everyone knows why we are fighting. Our path is toward the caliphate,” the 28-year-old Mr. Al-Shishani declares. “We will bring back the caliphate, and if God does not make it our fate to restore the caliphate, then we ask him to grant us martyrdom.”

Mr. Al-Shishani has been the group’s military commander in Syria, leading it on an offensive to take over a broad stretch of territory leading to the Iraq border. But he may have risen to become the group’s overall military chief, a post that has been vacant after the Iraqi terrorist who once held it — known as Abu Abdul-Rahman Al-Bilawi Al-Anbari — was killed in the Iraqi city of Mosul in early June. The video identified Mr. Al-Shishani as “the military commander” without specifying its Syria branch, suggesting he had been elevated to overall commander, though the group has not formally announced such a promotion.

The extremist group began as Al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq and many of its top leaders are Iraqi. But after it intervened in Syria’s civil war last year, it drew hundreds of foreign fighters into its operations in Syria.

Alexei Malashenko, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment’s Moscow office, said ethnicity is not a major factor in jihadi movements, only dedication to jihad. Mr. Al-Shishani “is a fanatic of Islam with war experience, and he obviously has had a strong track record ,” he said.

Syria’s civil war, in its fourth year, has attracted fighters from around the world. Some estimates run as high as 10,000 foreign fighters in the country. But the Chechens — hardened from years of wars with Russia in the Caucasus region — are considered some of the best fighters.

Hussein Nasser, spokesman for the Islamic Front coalition group of rebels, said Chechens are among the most feared fighters in Syria.

“A Chechen comes and has no idea about anything and does whatever his leader tells him,” Mr. Nasser said. “Even if his emir tells him to kill a child, he would do it.”

Mr. Al-Shishani, whose real name is Tarkhan Batirashvili, is an ethnic Chechen from the Caucasus nation of Georgia. He did military service in the Georgian army but was discharged after an unspecified illness, said one of his former neighbours, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

At one point, Georgian police arrested him for illegal possession of arms, the neighbour said. As soon as he was released in 2010, Mr. Batirashvili left for Turkey. He surfaced in Syria in 2013 with his nom de guerre, which means “Omar the Chechen” in Arabic, leading an Al-Qaeda-inspired group called “The Army of Emigrants and Partisans,” which included a large number of fighters from the former Soviet Union.

A meeting was soon organized with Mr. Al-Baghdadi in which Mr. Al-Shishani pledged loyalty to him, according to Lebanon’s A-Akhbar newspaper, which follows jihadi groups.

The Associated Press   



Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc . 
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị . 



conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
03072014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC