The leader of the "Caucasus Emirate" group in Russia's North Caucasus region has been killed in a mountain raid that included air strikes, Russian security services said Tuesday.
Four people died in the operation by Russia's special forces and military, Dagestan's interior ministry said. The recently appointed leader of the Caucasus Emirate group, Magomed Suleimanov, was among those killed, the National Anti-terrorist Committee (NAK) said in a statement to Russian news agencies.
Insurgent website Kavkaz Center also said that Suleimanov, 39, was killed in the course of a two-day raid near the mountain village of Gimry which included strikes from helicopters.
The Caucasus Emirate group had claimed several major attacks on Russian soil in recent years, including the Domodedovo airport bombing, which killed 27 people, and more recently twin blasts in the southern city of Volgograd which killed 34.
The Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus has recently been riddled with internal disputes as fighters pledged allegiance to different groups, including ISIL.
The Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus initially centred around Chechnya, but in the late 1990s it started spreading to other Russian regions, particularly Daghestan. The Caucasus Emirate emerged as the leading force for the insurgency at the time. It has subsequently been weakened, under pressure from Russian forces, as well as due to internal quarrels.
source: commonspace.eu with agencies.
photo: Magomed Suleimanov, the leader of the Islamist insurgency in the North caucasus was killed by Russian special forces on 11 August 2015. (archive picture).
