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| Caucasus |
| 'Arab' connection in Chechen blast |
| 2002-12-28 |
| As rescue teams continued to search for survivors amid the debris of the Chechen Government headquarters in Grozny, devastated in Friday's attack, the emergency ministry said the death toll had risen to 55, with a further 123 injured. The spokesman for the Russian military's anti-terrorist unit in the Northern Caucasus, Ilya Shabalkin, told the ITAR-TASS news agency that the attack was organised by rebel Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and an Arab mercenary named Abu-Tarik. "A few days earlier we were tipped off about a forthcoming large-scale terrorist act to be carried out in Grozny by a group based in Stariye Atagi and headed by Abu-Tarik," Mr Shabalkin said. So they knew it was coming, just not where... In a military operation at Stariye Atagi, a village 20 kilometres south of Grozny that Mr Shabalkin said was used as a base for terrorist activities, "we succeeded in killing Abu-Tarik but were unable to prevent the terrorist act," the spokesman said. "Abu, we hardly knew ye..." The initial tip-off had concerned a meeting between the radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and another Arab named Abu al-Walid, Shabalkin said. On Friday, Mr Shabalkin said the attack was ordered by Basayev and al-Walid and financed by sources in several Arab countries which he did not name. Walid is Khattab's successor. Guess he's picked up his contacts back in the Olde Countrie, too... And on NTV television yesterday he said Chechen rebels had begun "resorting to so-called Arab methods, in which suicide bombers attempt to penetrate areas where people are gathered and blow themselves up". Perhaps because the Arab control is more naked now... Russian officials have sought to play up links between the radical Islamist Basayev and the elected rebel President Aslan Maskhadov, particularly during the October 23-26 Moscow theatre siege in which an armed Chechen rebel group took 800 people hostage. Ah! Analysis! I like analysis. It means I don't have to think it out for myself. But Maskhadov was elected "president" of his bandit gang about six years ago, and only a month or two ago resigned the position to become potentate... The foreign ministry said in a statement that the organisers of the Grozny attack were "part of the global terror network," specifically referring to Al Qaeda. But Andrei Piontkovsky of Moscow's Centre for Strategic Studies said this year's death of Khattab, a Jordanian-born guerrilla with reported links to the Al Qaeda network, meant the Chechens have been forced to become far more self-reliant than in the past. "This was the work of Arabs is a slogan that works well for the Russian propaganda machine," he said. "It may be partially true, but with the death of Khattab, the influence of Arabs (in the Chechen resistance) is diminishing." Piontkovsky's area of expertise apparently doesn't include the Caucasus, or Khattab, or else he's got an agenda, which is more likely. From Khattab's obituary, on Kavkaz.org (the original page is now defunct, which is why I keep these things): "Khattab’s real name is Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem. In his early youth he wanted to study in the United States. Mansour shed light on several aspects of Khattab’s personal life in an interview with Arab News. The interview was conducted at his father’s house in Alkhobar in the Eastern Province."He may have been born in Jordan, but he was raised in Soddy Arabia. When he kicked it, al-Walid took his place, and Walid is another Soddy. World-wide, the Islamist hard boys keep swarming to Chechnya, just like they used to flock to Afghanistan. The "Islamic Republic of Ichkeria" under Maskhadov has become more Islamist and less Caucasian. |
| Posted by:Steve & Fred |