Ibn al-Khattab
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Ibn al-Khattab (ابن الخطاب) (born Saudi Arabia, 1969, died March 20, 2002), more commonly known as Emir Khattab (also transliterated as Amir Khattab and Ameer Khattab), and also known as Habib Abdul Rahman, was a Sunni Jihadi fighter and financier working with Chechen Mujahideen in the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War.
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 [1]. Khattab's given name is Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem, and he was born in 1969 in Saudi Arabia to an Arab father and an Adyghe mother.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Central Asia
At the age of 17, Khattab left Saudi Arabia to partipate in the fight against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During this time, he permanently incapacitated his right hand and lost several fingers after an accident with improvised explosives.
- While Armenian sources claim that in 1992 he was part of hundreds of Chechen volunteers that aided Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, where he allegedly met Shamil Basayev, Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence denies involvement of Khattab in Nagorno-Karabakh war. [2][3]
- From 1993-1995, Khattab left to fight alongside Islamic opposition in the Tajikistan Civil War.
[edit] First Chechen War
According to his 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 and demoralize the enemy.
During the First Chechen War, Khattab participated in fighting Russian forces and acted as an intermediary financier between foreign Islamist funding sources and the local fighters. To help secure funding and spread the message of resistance, he was frequently accompanied by at least one cameraman for the propaganda purposes.
Khattab gained early fame and a great notoriety in Russia for his April 1996 ambush of a Russian armored column in a narrow gorge of Yaryshmardy near Shatoy in the southern Chechen mountains. The videotaped attack [1] completely destroyed the Russian column and killed at least dozens soldiers.
In the course of the war, Shamil Basayev became his closest ally and personal friend. He was also associated with Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
[edit] Chechnya warlord
After the conclusion of the First Chechen War, Khattab became a prominent warlord and commanded the Islamic Regiment, his own private army with a backbone of a small group of Arabs and other foreign fighters who had come to participate in the war.
Khattab set up a network of paramilitary camps in the mountainous parts of the republic that, according to some reports, trained not only mujahideen from the North Caucasian Russian republics, but also Georgian supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and even Muslims from Central Asia.[citation needed]
[edit] Dagestan
On 22 December 1997, over a year after the signing of the Khasav-Yurt treaty and the end of the First Chechen War, the Islamic Regiment and a group of Dagestani rebels raided the base of the 136th Armoured Brigade of the 58th Army of Russian Army in Buinaksk, Dagestan, burning vehicles and killing dozens of soldiers (Chechen sources reported destruction or damage to 300 vehicles, while Russian sources reported only 10 destroyed and 15 damaged).
In 1998, along with Shamil Basayev, Khattab created the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB) group (also known as the Islamic Peacekeeping Army) which in 2003 was put on the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations.[2] In August-September 1999, they led the IIPB's incursions into Dagestan, which resulted in the deaths of at least several hundred people and effectively started the Second Chechen War.
[edit] 1999 Moscow bombings
An FSB investigation named Khattab as the mastermind behind the Russian apartment bombings which occurred in early September 1999.
However, on September 14, 1999, Khattab told the Interfax news agency in Grozny that he had nothing to do with the Moscow explosions; he was quoted as saying, “We would not like to be akin to those who kill sleeping civilians with bombs and shells.” [4]
[edit] Second Chechen War
During the course of the war, Khattab participated in leading his militia against Russian forces in Chechnya, as well managing the influx of foreign fighters and money (and, according to the Russian officials, also planning of terrorist attacks in Russia).
He led or commanded several devastating attacks, such as the mountain battle which killed at least 84 Russian paratroopers, and the attack on the OMON convoy near Zhani-Vedeno, which killed at least 45 Russian police comandos and Interior Ministry soldiers.
[edit] Death and legacy
Khattab later survived a heavy-calibre bullet wound to the stomach, a landmine explosion and a grenade which detonated in his hand. He was killed on a night of March 19-20, 2002, when a Dagestani messenger hired by the Russian FSB gave Khattab a poisoned letter. (The messenger, a Dagestani double agent known as Ibragim, was reportedly tracked down and killed a month later in Azerbaijan on Shamil Basayev's orders. [3])
He was succeeded in his role as financier-mediator by Amir Abu al-Walid, who was killed in 2004.
"Khattabka" (хаттабка) is now a popular Russian and Chechen name for a homemade hand grenade.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.islamawareness.net/Persecution/Chechnya/khattab.html
- ^ Eurasia insight. Chechen fighter’s death reveals conflicted feelings in Azerbaijan
- ^ "Terror in Karabakh: Chechen Warlord Shamil Basayev's Tenure in Azerbaijan", The Armenian Weekly On-Line: AWOL. Retrieved on 2007-02-15.
- ^ http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=94
[edit] External links
- Obituary: Chechen rebel Khattab BBC News
- AMIR KHATTAB Kavkaz Center in Russian
- Sobaka Dossier: Khattab Sobaka Magazine
- The Rise and Fall of Foreign Fighters in Chechnya The Jamestown Foundation
