Doku Umarov warned that Russia would be the target of a newly strengthened insurgency in a video posted on an Islamist web site on Monday. During the 17-minute-long video Umarov, who fancies himself the Emir of the Caucasus, says his insurgency has been strengthened by overcoming recent divisions that saw three high-level militants split from his Caucasus Emirate last year.
Wearing camouflage gear and an Islamic skullcap in the video posted on the Kavkaz Center web site, he said, "We want to assure you that our jihad is starting a new chapter, inshallah."
"We are calling on all mujahedin in the Caucasus and in other territories so that all differences stay in the past and that all our strength, will and power is directed at attesting to the word of Allah and against our enemy."
At the end of the video Umarov hugs high-ranking militants Hussein Gakayev and Aslambek Vadalov, who had left Umarov. Their allegiance to Umarov is likely to consolidate authority within the insurgency.
Meanwhile, security forces killed three suspected militants in a gunfight in Dagestan. One of the victims was Mekhtibek Bashirov, leader of an insurgent group in the Caspian Sea city of Derbent, according to the press service of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee.
| That explains why he wasn't in the video with Doku... |
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told Interfax, "Today's operation foiled possible serious terrorist attacks ... Two female suicide bombers have been disarmed."