Abu Omar al-Saif

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Abu Omar Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Saif, also called: Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Saif al-Jaber (1968/1969 – November, 2005), was a Saudi Wahhabist Islamist militant operating first in Afghanistan (1986-1988) and later in the North Caucasus (1996-2005) as the mufti of Arab fighters in Chechnya, allegedly with close ties to Osama bin Laden.

[edit] Biography

In the Zelimkhan Yandarbiev's Islamic government of Chechnya Abu Omar al-Saif held the title of “chairman of the Shariah judges” and was responsible for implementation of the Islamic courts. Later he became an ideologue and spiritual leader of the foreign fighters in the region and liaison to Islamists of the Persian Gulf from where he received funds which he redistributed to the militant groups in the Caucasus; the funds were channeled through the Al-Haramein Islamic Foundation, an US suspected terror group.[1] Abu Omar al-Saif was suspected of being the the mastermind behind the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk as well as the financier making possible the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis.

In November 2005, al-Saif was killed in Chechnya (or in the Russian republic of Dagestan, as some media claimed) in an operation by the FSB special services, when surrounded and unable to escape he allegedly blew himself up together with his second wife. He wrote several articles and books, especially related to the issues of Iraq and democracy which he considered un-Islamic and idolatrous [2] [3], and the conflict in the Caucasus which he believed could only be solved through armed Islamic Jihad.