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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia says captured Caucasus Islamist leader |
| 2010-06-11 |
| Quoting the FSB security services, Russian state television said that Ali Taziyev, from Ingushetia province, was one of the leaders of an envisaged Caucasus Emirate, which seeks to create a state under sharia law independent from Russia. "In 2009 he organized explosions in the interior ministry in (Ingush city) Nazran, resulting in a large number of deaths of law enforcement officers," state-run Rossiya 24 showed Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB security services, successor to the KGB, as telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He added that Taziyev, nicknamed "Magas" after Ingushetia's capital, was also behind the 2004 seizure of the interior ministry building in Ingushetia, which killed at least 92. The mainly Muslim North Caucasus is plagued by violence. Youths, driven by poverty and the ideology of global jihad, stage attacks almost daily. Taziyev, shown in pictures on unofficial Islamist sites sporting a long beard and heavily armed, was also behind a series of other attacks on public transport in the North Caucasus over the last six years, Bortnikov added. Describing Taziyev as a "leader of the criminal underground," Bortnikov said he was responsible as well for a suicide bomb attack on Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov last year. Yevkurov survived the attack with serious injuries. Bortnikov added that Taziyev was being transferred to Moscow, but did not elaborate on what awaited him there. Although the Kremlin is pouring billions of dollars into the development of North Caucasus, where unemployment is as high as 50 percent in some areas, religious and government leaders say many youths are still turning to extremism. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 too bad he didnt get the same treatment as Basayev |
| Posted by: chris 2010-06-11 22:16 |
| #2 ah that brings back memories.... good times, good times. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2010-06-11 15:32 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-06-11 13:28 |