Caucasian Front (Chechen War)

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Main article: Second Chechen War

Caucasian Front is a structural unit of the rebel Chechen Republic of Ichkeria armed forces, formally stablished in May 2005 by the decree of the new Chechen rebel President, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev.

While the anti-Russian local insurgencies in North Caucasus started even before the war, two months after Aslan Maskhadov's death, the Chechen separatists officially announced that they had formed a Caucasus Front within the framework of "reforming the system of military-political power." Along with the Chechen, Dagestani and Ingush "sectors," the Stavropol, Kabardin-Balkar, Krasnodar, Karachai-Circassian, Ossetian and Adyghe jamaats were included in it. This, in essence, means that practically all the regions of the Russia's south will be involved in the hostilities.

The Chechen separatist movement has taken on a new role as the official ideological, logistical and, probably, financial hub of the new insurgency in the North Caucasus. Increasingly frequent clashes between federal forces and local militants continue in Dagestan, while sporadic fighting erupts in the other southern Russia regions, most notably in Ingushetia.

1 Dagestan
2 2004 Nazran raid
3 Nalchik raid
4 Notable incidents
5 See also

[edit] Dagestan

The conflict has claimed lives of hundreds of federal servicemen and officials as well as Dagestani insurgents and civilians. According to a July 2005 report by the Russian Academy of Sciences, there were 70 "terror attacks" in Dagestan in the first six months of 2005, compared with 30 for all of 2004.

The attacks, which are becoming more sophisticated and deadly, primarily target Russian soldiers and Dagestani police and government officials. Sources indicate that as many as 2,000 Islamic insurgents, many belonging to the Jamaat Sharia group, are involved in the Dagestani Jihad.

[edit] 2004 Nazran raid

Destroyed military vehicle in Nazran after the Ingushetia raid

Main article: Nazran raid

On the night of June 21-22, 2004, hundreds of Chechen and Ingush fighters carried out a large-scale raid on Ingushetia, led by Shamil Basayev. The overnight attacks targeted 15 government buildings in the former Ingush capital, Nazran. Some 60 Ingush and Russian policemen were killed in the attacks or methodically executed by the assailants, and 38 Ingush civilians were killed in the crossfire. [1] At least six rebels were also killed.

[edit] Nalchik raid

Main article: October 2005 Nalchik attack

On October 13, 2005, local and Caucasian insurgents organized a daylight raid on Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria. The failed insurrection attempt claimed lives of more than 90 people, including at least 12 civilians, 35 policemen and 41 rebels.

[edit] Notable incidents

January 15, 2005 - The government forces surrounded a group of five rebel fighters in a two-story house on the outskirts of Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan. For 17 hours, the rebels battled Russian special forces supported by armoured vehicles and a helicopter, killing one of elite Alpha Group commandos and wounding another, until a tank smashed the remains of the burned and gutted house.[2] The group was blamed of killing over 30 officers of the Dagestan MVD and the local branch of the FSB. In the weeks preceding the battle, Dagestani insurgents have derailed two trains, sabotaged gas supplies and shot dead a high-ranking intelligence officer from Moscow. In a separate clash this day, special police task force stormed another house in Dagestan's port of Kaspiisk to arrest a separate group of militants, leaving three police commandos, including commander Arzulum Ilyasov, dead. One rebel was killed and one wounded, the third one escaped.

July 1, 2005 - 11 members of the elite Russian MVD OSNAZ Rus battalion were killed and seven wounded in the bomb attack in Makhachkala. The commandos had been sent to Dagestan only two weeks ago to help the local Interior Ministry forces conduct "operation filter", started after a 4 June bomb blew up an UAZ police vehicle with three policemen inside. On 4 July the chief of the city's MVD Yusup Abdulayev and several other police officials were fired.

July 12, 2005 - The Sharia Jamaat confirmed the death of its commander, Rasul Makasharipov. [3]

January 2006 - At least three OMON and Spetznaz servicemen died and more than 10 were wounded in a three-day battle on a mountain near Gimry in Dagestan between some 3,000 Russian troops led by the republic's Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov and a group of estimated eight armed rebels (or 30 according to the Kavkaz Center version). Despite heavy artillery and aerial bombardment all the fighters managaged to escape the encirclement, leaving behind only an abandonened dugout. The ministry said the group included suspects in a recent assassination attempt on the deputy interior minister that left his son dead.

July 10, 2006 - The head of the Russian FSB service, Nikolai Patrushev, announced the death of Shamil Basayev in a "special operation" in the Russian region of Ingushetia, near Chechnya. Chechen rebel website Kavkaz Center later confirmed his death, though they reported a CRI representative as saying "there was no special operation whatsoever. Shamil and the other brothers of ours became Shaheeds according to Allah's will." Basayev, who was considered a key link between the Chechen separatists and the North Caucasian insurgency, was killed when a KamAZ truck carrying 220 lbs of explosives exploded in his convoy. Three other militants were killed along with him. [4] [5]