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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Questions about reported killing of Grozny suicide bombing organizer |
| 2014-10-22 |
| The Chechen Interior Ministry announced on October 18 the killing in Grozny of Aslan Aliskhanov, who was identified as the "organizer" of a suicide bombing done 13 days earlier by a young Chechen identified as Apti Mudarov. But the details divulged of how he was killed are not entirely convincing. According to the Chechen Interior Ministry, Aliskhanov was shot while resisting arrest. He was armed and was wearing a suicide belt packed with explosives. Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin for his part said that joint measures by the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service had shown that Aliskhanov had planned to perpetrate on October 4 a suicide bombing similar to that carried out by Mudarov. Investigative Committee Chairman Aleksandr Bastrykin said that Aliskhanov had asked friends in Grozny at whose home he was staying to summon the police, with the intention of blowing up himself together with the police when they arrived. Aliskhanov's friends refused whereupon, according to Bastrykin, he detonated an explosive device that damaged their home. Bastrykin's account is questionable for at least two reasons. First, if Aliskhanov had in his possession a suicide belt stuffed with explosives, why did Mudarov use a homemade bomb based on a mortar shell? Second, why did Aliskhanov remain in Grozny after the October 5 suicide bombing, especially given that Chechen security officials had announced on October 16 that they had identified him as Mudarov's accomplice and launched a large-scale search for him, posting photographs of him publicly in the district of Grozny where he was subsequently spotted and killed? Two other aspects of the search for, and killing of, Aliskhanov are puzzling. First, Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who routinely plays up his and his zeal in countering the Islamic insurgency, has failed to comment on it. Second, neither Chechen authorities nor the federal Investigative Committee have made any mention of the alleged connection between the October 5 bombing and the Syria-based Islamist group Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (Jamwa), many of whose members are reportedly from Chechnya or elsewhere in the North Caucasus. The Moscow Times reportedly claimed, in an article that is no longer accessible, that a comment on the bombing was posted on an account on the Russian social-networking site VKontakte. The website Caucasus Knot in turn reported that Jamwa had actually taken responsibility for the Grozny bombing in a post to a VKontakte account. At the same time, it quoted two Russian experts as casting doubts on the authenticity of that claim, while a blogger affirmed categorically that Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar did not claim responsibility on Vkontakte for the Grozny bombing. Meanwhile, Chechen police are hunting for a third man, named as Magomed Zaurbekov, who reportedly had ties to Aliskhanov. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 As long as he's dead---who cares how. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-10-22 02:15 |