Ibn al-Khattab
Ibn al-Khattab | |
---|---|
ابن الخطاب | |
Abu al-Waleed | |
Personal details | |
Born | 14 April 1963/1969 Mujahideen in Afghanistan Azerbaijan (alleged) United Tajik Opposition Mujahideen in Bosnia–Herzegovina Mujahideen in Chechnya |
Years of service | 1980/1987–2002 |
Commands | Islamic International Brigade |
Battles/wars | |
Samir Saleh Abdullah al-Suwailim (
The origins and real identity of Khattab remained a mystery to most until after his death, when his brother gave an interview to the press.[3] His death in 2002 had followed his exposure to a poisoned letter, which had been delivered to him by a courier who was secretly affiliated with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
According to American scholar Muhammad al-Ubaydi, who specializes in the study of
Early life and education
Khattab's background is a topic of debate, with some sources placing his year of birth as 1963 in Jordan as well as his birth name being Habib Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Khattab, to a family of Jordanian-Circassian origin.[5][6] Another claim says Khattab was born in 1969 as Samir bin Salah al-Suwailim in Arar, Saudi Arabia, to a Bedouin father of the Arab Suwaylim tribe, also found in Jordan, and a mother of Syrian Turkmen descent. Regardless of the claims, Khattab self-identified as an Arab and later identified with both Saudi Arabia and Jordan as his countries.[7]
He was described as a brilliant student, scoring 94 percent in the secondary school examination, and initially wanted to continue his higher studies in the
Career
Afghanistan
At the age of 17, Khattab left Saudi Arabia to participate in the fight against forces of the Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War and the following Afghan Civil War. During this time, he lost the majority of his right hand after an accident with IEDs. He never visited the hospital, and he healed it by himself using honey, as per the Prophetic medicine.[9][10] He would participate in the botched Battle of Jalalabad in 1989.
Khattab, while the leader of
Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Bosnia–Herzegovina
From 1993 to 1995, Khattab left to fight alongside
In an interview, Khattab once mentioned he had also been involved in the Bosnian War. The fragment of this interview in which he makes this statement can be found in the 2004 BBC documentary The Smell of Paradise, though he did not specify his exact role or the duration of his presence there.[16]
Russia
First Chechen War
According to Khattab's brother, he first heard about the Chechen conflict on an Afghan television channel in 1995; that same year, he entered Chechnya, posing as a television reporter. He was credited as being a pioneer in producing video footage of Chechen rebel combat operations in order to aid fundraising efforts as well as international recruitment, and he himself achieved notoriety in 1996 when he himself filmed an ambush he led against a Russian armored column in Shatoy.[17] Not long after his arrival he married an ethnic Lak woman from Dagestan, the sister of Nadyr Khachiliev, an Islamist and leader of the Union of the Muslims of Russia, which has been seen as a way to already internationalize the Chechen struggle.[18]
During the
His units were credited with several devastating ambushes on Russian columns in the Chechen mountains. His first action was the October 1995 ambush of a Russian convoy which killed 47 soldiers.[19] Khattab gained early fame and a great notoriety in Russia for his April 1996 ambush of a large armored column in a narrow gorge of Yaryshmardy, near Shatoy, which killed up to 100 soldiers and destroyed some two or three dozen vehicles.[20] In another ambush, near Vedeno, at least 28 Russian troops were killed.[21]
In 1996 on the order from Aslan Maskhadov President of Chechnya, Khattab was appointed as the Chief of Military Training Center of the Central Front of the ChRI Armed Forces.[22]
In the course of the war,
A senior Chechen commander by the name of Izmailov told press how Khattab urged restraint, citing the Quran, when at the end of the war the Chechens wanted to shoot those they considered traitors.[24]
Activity in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
After the conclusion of the war, Khattab, by then wanted by
On 22 December 1997, over a year after the signing of the
War in Dagestan
In 1998, along with
1999 Russian apartment bombings
A
Some journalists and historians, both western and Russian, have claimed that the bombings were in fact a "
However, the invasion of Dagestan in August 1999 was the first and the main casus belli for the Second Chechen War.
Second Chechen War
During the course of the war in 2000, Khattab took over the leadership of the
He led or commanded several devastating attacks during this year, such as
Khattab later survived a heavy-calibre bullet wound to the stomach and a
Death and legacy
Khattab died of poisoning on 20 March 2002, when a Dagestani messenger hired by the Russian
He was falsely reported dead when
"
Due to his fierce opposition and devotion against Russia, he was nicknamed the Lion of Chechnya.
Relationship with Osama bin Laden
According to
According to Richard A. Clarke, "Bin Laden sent Afghan Arab veterans, money, and arms to fellow Saudi Ibn Khatab in Chechnya, which seemed like a perfect theater for jihad."[44]
Published works
He wrote his memoirs entitled Memories of Amir Khattab: The Experience of the Arab Ansar in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.[45]
References
- ISBN 9780399588815.
- ^ Muhammad al-`Ubaydi. "Khattab" (PDF). Combating Terrorism Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 August 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- ^ "Khattab, the man who died for the cause of Chechnya". Islam Awareness. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
- ^ Muhammad al-`Ubaydi (1 March 2015), "Khattab (Jihadi Bios Project)" Archived 31 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 2–3, Combating Terrorism Center. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
- ^ "U.S. PAPER GETS VIDEOTAPE LINKING KHATTAB AND BIN LADEN". Jamestown.
- ^ Mairbek Vatchagaev, "Security Services May Be Threatening Official Clergy in North Ossetia" in Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 10, 2016
- ^ Bodansky, Yossef (2009). Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda's Training Ground and the Next Wave of Terror. HarperCollins. p. 40.
- ^ Mowaffaq Al-Nowaiser (4 May 2002), "Khattab, The Man Who Died For The Cause Of Chechnya", Arab News. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-57488-830-0.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Adam (14 February 2023). "The Jihad Continues In Chechnya, Ibn al-Khattab's War". Medium. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ^ Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities
- ^ QE.I.99.03. ISLAMIC INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE (IIB) Archived 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine "Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities"
- ^ "Chechen Fighter's Death Reveals Conflicted Feelings in Azerbaijan". EurasiaNet. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
- ^ "Terror in Karabakh: Chechen Warlord Shamil Basayev's Tenure in Azerbaijan". The Armenian Weekly On-Line: AWOL. Archived from the original on 14 February 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2007.
- ^ Michelle Shephard, Guantanamo's Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, p. 37
- ^ "BBC Four – The Smell of Paradise". YouTube. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ^ Robert Bruce Ware, The Fire Below: How the Caucasus Shaped Russia, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013, p. 288
- ^ Gordon M. Hahn, The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia's North Caucasus and Beyond, McFarland, 2014, p. 28
- ^ The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror, Murphy, Paul J., 2004
- ^ "BBC News | EUROPE | Khatab: Islamic revolutionary". news.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ Russian fighting ceases in Chechnya; Skeptical troops comply with Yeltsin order CNN Archived March 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "AMIR KHATTAB". Kavkazcenter.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2004. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Ali Askerov, Historical Dictionary of the Chechen Conflict, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, p. 119
- ^ Muslim Fighter Embraces Warrior Mystique, The New York Times, 17 October 1999
- ^ Paul J. Murphy, The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror, Brassey's, 2004, p. 45
- ^ Gordon M. Hahn, Russia's Islamic Threat, Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 38–39
- ISBN 978-1-57488-830-0.
- ^ "Site Links". Archived from the original on 10 April 2005. Retrieved 19 December 2005.
- ISBN 0-300-09892-8
- ISBN 1-59403-246-7, Encounter Books; 25 February 2009, pages133-138
- ^ "Finally, We Know About the Moscow Bombings". The New York Review of Books. 22 November 2012.
- ^ Getting away with murder Archived 15 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine by Amy Knight, The Times Literary supplement, 3 August 2016
- ^ Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?, By Karen Dawisha, 2014, Simon & Schuster, page 222.
- ^ John Russell, Chechnya – Russia's 'War on Terror, Routledge, 2007, p. 111
- Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 5 April 2000
- ^ "More of Kremlin's Opponents Are Ending Up Dead". The New York Times. 21 August 2016.
- ^ Ian R Kenyon (June 2002). "The chemical weapons convention and OPCW: the challenges of the 21st century" (PDF). The CBW Conventions Bulletin (56). Harvard Sussex Program on CBW Armament and Arms Limitation: 47.
- ^ [1]=18627&tx_ttnews[backPid]=184&no_cache=1 "Who Ordered Khattab's Death?"], Jamestown Foundation, quoting Russian press sources
- ^ Rohan Gunaratna, The Global Jihad Movement, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, p. 358
- ^
Ibn al Khattab
- ^
OARDEC (26 May 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al-Rammah, Omar Mohammed Ali" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 25–27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2008.] on 28 April 2002.
The detainee was captured in a violent road ambush by Georgia Security Forces in Duisi, Georgia
- ^ Nikiforov, Vladislav (15 May 2019). "Самая массовая граната чеченской войны "Хаттабка"" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
- ^ ISBN 0521737435
- ISBN 978-0743260459
- ^ Elena Pokalova, Returning Islamist Foreign Fighters: Threats and Challenges to the West, Springer, 2019, p. 70
External links
- BBC notice of Khattab's death
- Khattab info from Kavkaz Center (in Russian)
- The Rise and Fall of Foreign Fighters in Chechnya, The Jamestown Foundation