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Ties between Caucasus rebels and al Qaeda strengthening
Al Qaeda is providing the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus with increasing amounts of money and other forms of support, according to a report by a DC think tank. Underestimating the danger posed by the Caucasus Emirate "only increases our vulnerability to attack", said author Gordon Hahn, adding that global and U.S. national security were also under threat. "Al Qaeda has played an important role in proselytising jihadism and providing financial, training and personnel support to the mujahideen in Chechnya and the Caucasus," said Hahn, a senior researcher at the U.S. Monterey Institute for International Studies. Al Qaeda's online magazine Ansar al Mujahideen began appearing in Russian last year, adding to the dozen or so Russian-language sites affiliated with the insurgency. These sites increasingly carry statements of support from top terrorists such as Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, who inspired al Qaeda in Iraq and is now imprisoned in Jordan, Hahn said in the report. Citing Spanish police who nabbed a Moroccan man last year accused of being the webmaster of the al Qaeda magazine, Hahn said: "The website was already being used to raise money for terrorists in Chechnya as well as Afghanistan." There has also been an increase in the number of militants killed by Russian security forces whom authorities say come directly from al Qaeda. Hahn pointed to the arrest by Czech police of eight individuals in Prague suspected of plotting attacks in the North Caucasus as possible evidence of ties to al Qaeda. Police said the group, which included a Chechen and Dagestanis, had trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He emphasised repeated calls by Doku Umarov, Russia's most wanted man, for the Caucasus Emirate to be brought into global jihad, most recently in February. Posted by: ryuge 2011-09-30 |
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