Six Russian citizens belonging to the banned Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir were arrested in St. Petersburg on June 24. Police killed two suspected Islamist militants in Dagestan; alleged Caucasus Emirate “warlord” Makhach Taimudarov was killed in Makhachkala, and another man was killed in Derbent. Prosecutors are seeking a 13-year sentence for a former Makhachkala mayor accused of plotting both a missile attack against a plane carrying a top Russian Pension Fund official and the murder of an Investigative Committee official. Abu Muhammad, emir of the Caucasus Emirate, has issued a video discussing the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal Ansar (Emigrants Army), which calls itself the Imarat Kavkaz/Caucasus Emirate (CE) in Syria; he says Chechen fighters should align themselves with the Al Nusrah Front, not the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, and urges ISIS commander Omar al Shishani to return to the Emigrants Army, but also warns against fitna (discord).
