But he has been dead before: “Umarov, a bearded fighter who has headed militants in Chechnya since 2006, has been the subject of numerous death reports in the past.”
“According to the University of Maryland, the Caucasus Emirate that Umarov headed perpetrated 31 attacks that killed 140 people between 1992 and 2012.”
“FSB Confirms Killing of Terrorist Leader Umarov,” by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber for the Moscow Times, April 8:
Russia’s Federal Security Service announced Tuesday that Doku Umarov, the leader of a Chechen terrorist organization and Russia’s most wanted man, had been killed during a special operation in the first quarter of this year in a victory for Russia’s fight against terrorism.
The announcement, made by Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, at a session of the National Antiterrorism Committee, or NAC, comes after months of speculation about Umarov’s whereabouts. Numerous unconfirmed reports about the death of the Islamist militant, who claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on the Moscow metro in 2010 and the city’s Domodedovo Airport in 2011, had circulated in Russian media in recent years.
In January, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that Umarov, who headed the Caucasus Emirate terrorist group, was dead and that members of insurgency groups were looking for a replacement for him. Umarov’s sympathizers released a similar statement in March, which the FSB did not confirm at the time.
At Tuesday’s NAC session, Bortnikov also highlighted his organization’s other recent successes, including anti-terrorism operations that he said had nearly halved the number of terrorist attacks in the country in comparison to the first quarter of 2013, Interfax reported.
Bortnikov said the FSB had conducted 33 anti-terrorism operations in the first quarter of this year during which 13 leaders and 65 active members of armed groups had been neutralized. According to Bortnikov, 250 kilograms of explosives, 79 improvised explosive devices and more than 500 weapons were seized during the operations, the news agency reported.
But the announcement of Umarov’s long-awaited “neutralization” was tempered by reminders of lingering challenges in Russia’s fight against terrorism.
At his meeting with the FSB on Monday, President Vladimir Putin painted a balanced picture of terrorism in Russia, conceding that the country still faces challenges despite its recent success in anti-terrorism operations.
“The situation is still difficult,” Putin said. “The terrorist underground has suffered big losses but still has the potential to carry out attacks against civilians, as we saw to our great sorrow at the end of last year in Volgograd.”
In late December 2013, two suicide bombings only one day apart shook the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing 32 people and injuring nearly 100 others. The attacks followed the bombing of a Volgograd bus in October, which claimed the lives of seven people.
The frequency of terrorist attacks in Russia progressively increased between the collapse of the Soviet Union and 2010, ranging from 20 attacks in 1992 to more than 250 attacks in 2010, according to the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
While Putin praised the work of the security apparatus for having thwarted attacks on the Sochi Olympic Games and other large-scale events, he said that the FSB should continue to “concentrate all necessary resources” on counter-terrorism.
In July 2013, Umarov lifted a moratorium on his group’s attacks on civilian targets, calling for the use of “maximum force” to prevent the Sochi Olympics from taking place.
Analysts who monitor Russian domestic security agree that Umarov’s death is a positive development in Russian anti-terrorism operations but deny that it marks the country’s decisive triumph over terrorism.
“The era of Doku Umarov and other Chechen terrorists who masked their activities behind separatism and national independence aspirations is coming to an end,” Viktor Kulikov, director of the National Anti-Criminal and Anti-Terrorism Foundation think tank, said in a telephone interview.
“Terrorism has already begun to take a new direction in the country, one that is not linked to separatism. We need to attack the sources of terrorism, like corruption, which creates stark inequalities. The death of Umarov marks the beginning of a new era, of a new fight,” he said.
Kulikov said that despite remaining challenges in Russia’s fight against terrorism, Umarov’s killing demonstrates that the country’s anti-terrorism legislation and operations have been “effective.”
Among the challenges the FSB still faces, Bortnikov warned that nearly 1,000 Russians are being trained by international terrorist organizations.
“Chances are that when these individuals return from abroad, they will be used by leaders of underground groups in Russia,” Bortnikov said, Interfax reported.
According to the University of Maryland, the Caucasus Emirate that Umarov headed perpetrated 31 attacks that killed 140 people between 1992 and 2012.
The FSB has not disclosed details of Umarov’s death and his body has not been recovered, according to an Interfax source.
“I do not think a big deal will be made about the body like with [Osama] bin Laden,” said Ivan Kuznechik, former deputy head of the Russian bureau of an international anti-terrorism organization, in a telephone interview.
“Body or no body, Umarov is dead. That is what is most important.”
Guy Macher says
Another jihadi barrow meeting Allah in Hell! Wonderful news.
dumbledoresarmy says
So long as Muslims are present within the Russian Federation, there will be jihad within the Russian Federation.
Sometimes more, if the circumambient infidels grow weaker and relax their vigilance; sometimes less, if the circumambient infidels increase in numbers, strength and vigilance.
Got Muslims? – got Jihad.
The Ummah, or Mohammedan Mob, is the nurturing sea within which the jihad terror raiders, the sharia assassins, swim and from which, ceaselessly, they emerge.
Russia – Russia, the eastern daughter of Christendom – has been assailed by Jihad for over a thousand years; and, on the whole, she’s been putting up a pretty good fight.
John Quincy Adams correctly discerned the nature and causes of the jihad against Russia, which during his time was primarily being carried on by the Turkish Muslims aka Ottoman Empire; and his sympathies were with Russia.
Would that a president could be raised up, for the United States, who would read John Quincy Adams’ essays on the Russo-Turkish war, and on the Greek struggle for independence, with their discussions of Islam, jihad, taqiyya, hudna, and take them as his guide. Such a president would end all aid to the Muslims and certainly all gifts of arms and weapons training; such a president would be exceedingly wary of entering into any kind of agreement with any Muslim entity, for he would know that the word of Muslims is not to be trusted; such a president, observing conflicts in which Muslims were warring with non-Muslims, would judiciously make overtures toward and assist the non-Muslim party.
John Quincy Adams, had the Russia of his day delivered to him a warning , not once but twice, that such-and-such a person or persons on American soil was suspected of being a Muslim saboteur and secret agent, would not have made the mistakes that the FBI made when they received the FSB warnings about Tsarnaev.
apostate says
Thank you DDA,i trust and hope some people are starting reading now.
Clare says
And domestically, such a President would closely follow Gellers platform.
http://pamelageller.com/2013/04/american-freedom-defense-initiative-announces-platform-for-defending-freedom-in-wake-of-boston-jihad.html/
Oh, for a changing of the guard to make it so.
Angemon says
“ a victory for Russia’s fight against terrorism”
Victory? Bah. Someone else will take his place. If Russian authorities don’t understand what makes them tick they’ll never neutralize the terrorist threat.
Jay Boo says
Good photo of the Road Killed Snake false god of Islam on the black flag.
citycat says
Yeah, how they tick is not to be found in a normal morality.
People try to fit them into a box that obscures the deep cult death mentality, with no normal human compassion.