Menu
Latest
Menu
Latest
Leader of Islamist insurgency in North Caucasus killed.

Leader of Islamist insurgency in North Caucasus killed.

21 April 2015

The leader of the Islamist inspired insurgency in the North Caucasus, Aliaskhab Kebekov has been killed in an anti-terrorist operation yesterday (Sunday, 19 April)on the outskirts of the Daghestani town of Buinaksk. Aliaskhab Kebekov, was also known as Amir Ali Abu-Muhammad, the Avar theologian who was chosen in early 2014 to succeed Doku Umarov as leader of the Caucasus Emirate that Umarov had proclaimed in 2007.

According to the National Antiterrorism Committee, a total of five militants were killed when security personnel stormed the house in which they were holed up.

Kebekov, who was 43, was born in Daghestan's central Shamil district, and studied Arabic and Islamic theology first with local clerics and later in Syria. He returned to Daghestan in 2005 and taught for a while in a madrasah (religious school) in Tarki before joining the insurgency in 2010.

According to Russian National Anti-Terrorist Centre, "Kebekov was directly involved in the organization of the murder of the Sufi Muslim spiritual leader of Dagestan popularly known as Shaykh Said Afandi al-Chirkawi in 2012, as well as in plotting the terrorist attacks in the city of Volgograd (Southern Russia) in 2013."

source commonspace.eu with Radio Liberty and Itar-Tass.

Photo: Aliaskhab Kebekov, Islamist insurgency leader in the North Caucasus was killed on Sunday 19 April 2015 during an anti terrorist operation.

Related articles

Editor's choice
News
Despite crisis, Lebanon takes the lead to become first country in the Middle East to abolish the death penalty
Trending

Despite crisis, Lebanon takes the lead to become first country in the Middle East to abolish the death penalty

12 August 2026
Lebanon's parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, a move that would make it the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment. A majority of MPs in the 128-seat parliament backed the measure on Tuesday (11 August), while Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc voted against it. The legislation will now go to the cabinet before being passed to President Joseph Aoun for signing. The government has already expressed its support for the measure. Lebanon has not carried out an execution since January 2004, although courts have continued to hand down death sentences. Rights groups estimate that more than 78 people remain on death row. Under the new legislation, capital punishment will be replaced with life imprisonment with hard labour. However, the legislation does not yet set out in detail how the new sentence would be enforced. Hard labour is already written into Lebanese law but has rarely been implemented in recent years. The country's financial crisis and overcrowded prisons have limited the authorities' resources and capacity. The latest legislation follows years of campaigning by civil society groups and lawyers for the removal of capital punishment from Lebanese law. (click image to read more)

Popular

Editor's choice
Interview
Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov
Trending

Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

15 January 2026
Today, commonspace.eu starts a new regular weekly series. THURSDAY INTERVIEW, conducted by Lauri Nikulainen, will host  persons who are thinkers, opinion shapers, and implementors in their countries and spheres. We start the series with an interview with Murad Muradov, a leading person in Azerbaijan's think tank community. He is also the first co-chair of the Action Committee for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue. Last September he made history by being the first Azerbaijani civil society activist to visit Armenia after the 44 day war, and the start of the peace process. Speaking about this visit Murad Muradov said: "My experience was largely positive. My negative expectations luckily didn’t play out. The discussions were respectful, the panel format bringing together experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey was particularly valuable during the NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan, and media coverage, while varied in tone, remained largely constructive. Some media outlets though attempted to represent me as more of a government mouthpiece than an independent expert, which was totally misleading.  Overall, I see these initiatives as important steps in rebuilding trust and normalising professional engagement. The fact that soon a larger Azerbaijani civil society visits to Armenia followed, reinforces the sense that this process is moving in the right direction." (click the image to read the interview in full)
Murad Muradov
Lauri Nikulainen interviews Murad Muradov