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.