Russian police appear to have identified one of the men involved in this week’s deadly suicide attack in Moscow. According to this report (which has yet to be officially confirmed) police have linked one of the suspects to the Nogai Jamaat, a little known Islamist group associated with the Caucasus Emirate that operates in northern Chechnya and in Dagestan. From RIA Novosti:
Police have identified the first suspect behind the deadly terrorist attack on Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport as a Russian resident of the southern Stavropol region, a police source close to the investigation told the Kommersant daily.
The suspect, whose surname was revealed as Razdobudko, was allegedly a member of the Nogai Jamaat terrorist group, which was broken up in October, 2010, the paper said.
“He [Razdobudko] is by no means the only person being investigated for taking part in the terrorist attack, so we should not jump to any conclusions,” the source said.
The source said Razdobudko could be one of the organizers or even a perpetrator of Monday’s attack, which killed 35 people in the arrivals zone of Russia’s biggest airport and injured over a hundred.
The Jamestown Foundation has a good backgrounder on the Nogai Jamaat. The group was once under the command of Shamil Basayev, the leader of the Chechen jihadists who was killed by Russian forces in 2006 (Baseyev was replaced by Doku Umarov, who declared the Islamic Caucasus Emirate one year later in 2007). Nogai Jamaat fighters trained under Ibn Khattab, the Saudi-born commander who led the International Islamic Battalion in Chechnya, al Qaeda’s combat unit in the Caucasus.
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2 Comments
Does this mean the reports of Pakistani involvement are false?
The above incident just shows the international scope of international terrorism. It will require an international and concerted effort to subdue it.
Bush was correct when he said Al Queda (and international terrorism in general) was a threat to civilization. We just need to get the rest of civilization on board with US to successfully repel it.
I have long advocated an international model based on (at least in concept to) Europe’s INTERPOL as a possible means to successfully counter international terrorism.
Just like disparate terrorist groups have formed “syndicates” with other disparate terrorist groups in Pakistan, we could counter that strategy by forming syndicates with other countries (like Russia, India and Canada, etc., to name but a few).
In many ways, the phrase “Al Queda” [translated literally as “the base”] should be seen as at least similar if not synonymous to the phrase “the Mafia.”
One has come to mean organized crime, while the other could be seen as meaning organized and international terror or terrorism. At their base, both I feel are driven and based on an incorrigible criminal element that acts similar to a crime syndicate.
Al Queda is active in possibly 30 or 40 different countries, and there is no way we here in the US could invade (and especially “occupy”) 30 or 40 different countries. No, not simultaneously; not even in tandem (or, one by one).
As in Gulf War I, that same spirit of international unity, leadership and equanimity might be needed now more than ever.
Just my ‘2 cents’ on the matter.