[NYT] The leader of the Caucasus Emirate was killed in a counterterrorism operation, according to Russian authorities and Islamic militant websites Monday. Aliaskhab Kebekov, a 43-year old theologian, was gunned down on Sunday near the city of Buynaksk in the Dagestan area, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement.Kebekov had only led the Caucasus Emirate group for a little more than a year. During that time, Islamist militants launched an audacious assault on Grozny that left 15 policemen dead and 36 wounded last December.
It can be difficult to reliably confirm the deaths of prominent militants in Russia. The authorities announced Mr. Umarov’s death a half-dozen times before, only for him to reappear alive afterward.
It can be difficult to reliably confirm the deaths of militant leaders in Russia, but experts who were interviewed on Monday said that official claims of Kebekov’s death were probably true this time because Russian militant sites like Kavkaz-Center had reported it as well.
Kebekov, a Sharia scholar who lacked military experience, seemed an unlikely choice to lead the Caucasus Emirate. His best-known edict as leader may be his ban on use of "black widow" suicide bombings carried out by women. He led the Caucasus Emirate during a time of decline, as it was undermined by an expanding rival, the Islamic State. Several top commanders defected from the Caucasus Emirate over the last year to join the Islamic State, prompting angry denunciations from Kebekov's lieutenants in online videos.
Grigory Shvedov, editor of Caucasian Knot, said that Kebekov's death was a major blow to the Caucasus Emirate that would probably tip the balance among Islamists farther toward the IS. Shvedov said, "The situation is somewhat paradoxical. The people who have been killed are perhaps the less radical ones, because those who have dedicated themselves to the Islamic State, they are the more radical ones."