Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > New ISIS Front In Chechnya With 15,000 Fighters " We need To Hurry Up And Unite So We Can Cut Off The Heads Of Infidels"
New ISIS Front In Chechnya With 15,000 Fighters " We need To Hurry Up And Unite So We Can Cut Off The Heads Of Infidels"
June 22, 2015
ISIS opens a new front on Europe's doorstep: Chechan jihadi group with 'up to 15,000' fighters pledge allegiance to terror horde
Leader of terror group known as Caucuses Emirate declared loyalty to ISIS
'We need to unite... so we can cut off the heads of the infidels,' he has said
Group operates in Russian republics of Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia
It has killed hundreds in deadly terror attacks on Russian soil since 2007
Eight million already live in ISIS territory across MIddle East, north Africa.
ISIS has spread its tentacles further around Europe after a major terrorist group which commands 'as many as 15,000' in the Caucuses region of southern Russia pledged its allegiance to it.
The leader of the Caucuses Emirate, which has carried out over 900 terrorist attacks on Russian soil since its formation in 2007, personally declared his loyalty to ISIS commander-in-chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
'We need to hurry up and unite so we can cut off the heads of the infidels,' Aslan Byutukayev says in a new propaganda video allegedly filmed inside the predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya.
The Caucasus Emirate serves as an umbrella group of smaller extremist groups in Chechnya, Daghestan and Ingushetia, who have been waging bloody battles in an attempt to break away from Russian rule for decades.
The group may command tens of thousands of loyal subjects, according to Professor Gordon Hahn of the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program.
'The entire CE [Caucuses Emirate] insurgency and terrorist movement may be estimated to number some 15,200 soldiers, leaders and facilitators,' he wrote in his book The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin.
Islamic State already commands 'up to 200,000' fighters according to Kurdish commanders and as many as eight million people are thought to be living under its brutal reign across the Middle East and North Africa - after it expanded its territory to Libya earlier this year.
And in a recently released video entitled 'Soon, Soon', an unknown organisation called 'ISIS Tunisia Province' hinted at setting up yet another official base in the north African country which has supplied the extremists with 3,000 jihadi soldiers in recent years.
Caucuses Emirate was recognised as a terrorist organisation by the UK, United States, Russia and the United Nations following a series of deadly high-profile attacks between 2009 and 2014.
The Islamist group was behind the 2009 Nevsky Express disaster when 27 people were killed and over 50 wounded when a bomb was detonated on a high speed train carrying 661 passengers from Moscow St Petersburg...
By Jay Akbar For Mailonline
Published: 05:45 EST, 22 June 2015 | Updated: 07:19 EST, 22 June 2015
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