Tuesday 16 February 2010

Russian forces kill al-Qaeda's leader in North Caucasus

Russian Troops Kill Influential al-Qaeda Terrorist
03 February 2010
Source: Pravda.Ru
The founder of al-Qaeda’s division in the Northern Caucasus, Mohmad Shabaan, an Egyptian known as Seif Islam, was killed in Dagestan as a result of the operation conducted by the troops of the Federal Security Service.

Shabaan’s assistant, Ibrahim Magomedov, was killed in the operation too. An employee of Dagestan’s law-enforcement agency was injured in the operation and subsequently died.

Seif Islam appeared in Russia in 1992. He underwent combat training in Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon and Georgia. In Chechnya, Shabaan took part in military actions against federal troops. Afterwards, he joined forces with warlord Khattab to organize al-Qaeda’s division in the Caucasus, Pravda.Ru reports.

Afterwards, Seif Islam opened a terrorist training center in Chechnya, where he was training terrorists to organize bomb attacks.

During the second Chechen war, the terrorist served as an advisor for religion to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. He was also in contact with another well-known terrorist, Shamil Basayev.

Recently, Shabaan has been a close associate of terrorist Doku Umarov. He organized bloodiest terrorist acts in the region. Shabaan went to Dagestan after federal troops killed Doctor Mohammad – the Algerian terrorist responsible for al-Qaeda’s activities in the republic.

Mohmad Shabaan was in charge of organizing terrorist activities and recreating a channel to smuggle arms and explosives to Dagestan from Georgian special services.

He conducted his most recent terrorist act on January 6 of this year when a suicide bomber drove his vehicle on the territory of a road patrol station in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala. Six police officers were killed, 20 others, including civilians, were wounded.
Russian forces kill al-Qaeda's leader in North Caucasus
Source: (UNI) New Kerala Moscow Russia | 13 days ago
Egyptian national Mohamad Shaaban, 49, was killed during a shootout with security forces in the tiny republic's mountainous Botlikhsky District yesterday.

A Dagestani militant and a police officer also died in the incident.

FSB spokesman said Shaaban, who went by the name of Seif Islam (the sword of Islam), had seen action in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and "was also in Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Georgia." "In 1992, he arrived in Chechnya to take part in operations against federal forces," he said, adding Shaaban had organised the North Caucasus branch of al-Qaeda with Saudi-born Islamic radical Ibn Al-Khattab, who was eliminated by security forces recently.

The mainly Muslim regions in Russia's North Caucasus have been plagued by militant violence, with almost daily attacks on security forces and officials.

Russian Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev said on January 16 that 235 police officers and interior troops died in the region in 2009, with 686 injured as recorded terrorist acts, including suicide bombings, rose sharply.

Following a January 6 suicide bomb attack on a police compound in Dagestan that killed five and wounded up to 19 people, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Federal Security Service to tighten security across the North Caucasus.

Mr Medvedev also established the North Caucasus Federal District and appointed Krasnoyarsk governor and former business executive Alexander Khloponin as Deputy Prime Minister and presidential envoy to the region.
--UNI
Update Wed 17 Feb 2010:

This morning (Wed, 17 Feb 2010 at 00:36 GMT UK) I received an emailed Google Web Alert that pointed to an interesting AFP news report dated February 3rd - and reprinted at INSI, where I found it. Here below is a copy of the Google Web Alert and AFP's report, in full.


=== Google Web Alert for: qaeda sudan ===

Al qaeda in iraq operations history
Brief History of al Qaeda to Sudan, and with him went the base of
operations for al Qaeda AL QAEDA AND IRAQ Who exactly is the enemy in Iraq
and how ...
http://laurenszwaan.nl/16rsilk/34.php?q=al+qaeda+in+iraq+operations+history

Al-Qaeda militant killed in Russian Caucasus: official
In the early 90s, Seif Islam fought in Afghanistan and was also in Sudan,
... Russian authorities have expressed concern about Al-Qaeda infiltrating
the ...
http://www.newssafety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17780:al-qaeda-militant-killed-in-russian-caucasus-official&catid=300:dagestan-security&Itemid=100457>

This as-it-happens Google Alert is brought to you by Google...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Dagestan - Security
Al-Qaeda militant killed in Russian Caucasus: official
Source : AFP 03.02.2010
MOSCOW, Feb 3, 2010 (AFP) - Russian security forces have killed a militant described as a leading Al-Qaeda operative in a clash in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan, the security service said on Wednesday.

Mohmad Mohammed Shabaan, an Egyptian national also known as Seif Islam, and his Dagestani accomplice, Ibragim Magomedov, were killed during a special operation Tuesday evening, the FSB security service said.

It described the foreign operative as one of the founders of the Al-Qaeda terror network in Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region.

"Seif Islam had been on international wanted list for terrorist activity at the request of the Egyptian authorities," the Dagestan branch of the Russian security service said in a statement sent to AFP.

One policeman was killed in the clash, it added.

In the early 90s, Seif Islam fought in Afghanistan and was also in Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon and Georgia.

Russian authorities have expressed concern about Al-Qaeda infiltrating the North Caucasus where local militants have for the last years been waging an insurgency against the pro-Kremlin local authorities.

Tensions have been particularly acute in recent months in Dagestan, a region on the Caspian Sea with a patchwork of different ethnicities.

In 1992, Seif Islam arrived in Chechnya, the site of two bloody wars with separatists where, as an ally of late Chechen rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, he helped fight Russian troops, the FSB said.

A close ally of top North Caucasus separatists, including Shamil Basayev and most recently Dokku Umarov, he was also head of the Chechen branch of the Benevolence International Foundation, a charity thought to be a front for militants, between 1996 and 1998, according to the statement.

On Umarov's orders, Seif Islam had been in charge of organizing militant actions in Dagestan and resuming supplies of arms and explosives from Georgia, the FSB said.

"On the orders of Georgia's special services, he organized acts of sabotage to blow up railroads, power lines, gas and oil pipelines," it said.

©2010 AFP All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2010 International News Safety Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Friday 12 February 2010

Russian official holds bilateral talks with out-going Sudanese ambassador

Russian official holds bilateral talks with out-going Sudanese ambassador
From African Press Agency (APA) Friday, 12 February 2010:
APA-Moscow (Russia) - Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Saltanov, on Thursday received the Sudanese ambassador to Russia, Sirajuddin Hamid Yousuf, on the occasion of the completion of his diplomatic assignment in Russia, APA learns from diplomatic sources in Moscow.

During the conversation, the two examined the state and prospects for closer relations between Russia and Sudan, and they also discussed pressing international and regional problems as well as matters connected with efforts to normalize further the situation in Sudan, including the upcoming elections in the country and a settlement to the conflict in Darfur. KKK/daj/APA 2010-02-12