| Tohir Abduhalilovich Yo‘ldoshev Тахир Абдухалилович Юлдашев |
|
|---|---|
| Born | October 2, 1967 |
| Died | August 27, 2009 (aged 41) |
| Allegiance | Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan |
| Battles/wars | |
Tohir Yo‘ldosh, born Tohir Abduhalilovich Yo‘ldoshev (Russian: Тахир Абдухалилович Юлдашев Takhir Abdukhalilovich Yuldashev), (October 2, 1967 – August 27, 2009) cofounded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an Islamist organization active in Central Asia, with Juma Namangani in December 1991.[1] According to the Defense Intelligence Agency he was a key leader opposing US forces during Operation Anaconda. The United Nations considers the IMU an Islamic terrorist organization.[2]
When anti-Taliban forces killed Namangani, the IMU's military leader and cofounder, in Afghanistan in 2001, Yo‘ldosh took over the IMU's day-to-day operations as well.[3]
According to the BBC, Yo‘ldosh learned that al Qaeda was planning to use hijacked airliners to attack the United States on September 11, 2001, prior to the attacks.[4] The BBC reported that Yo‘ldosh then informed the Taliban Foreign Minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, who sent an envoy to warn the USA of al Qaeda's attack plans prior to September 11, 2001. According to the BBC Yo‘ldosh was told to initiate an advance warning to the USA of the attacks because he was concerned that an al Qaeda attack on the USA would trigger an American counter-attack, which would imperil the safe haven his group had been enjoying in Afghanistan.
A video message from Tohir Yo‘ldosh was reportedly distributed throughout the Uzbek areas of Central Asia in early 2007.[5] In the video Tohir was reported to have said:
| “ | Today, our primary goal is to emancipate Iraq and Afghanistan from the American occupation. | ” |
After Baitullah Mehsud was reported to have been killed by missiles fired from an American Predator drone the Asia Times reported that Yoldashev had been Baitullah's ideological mentor, that Yoldeshev had put 2,500 hardened fighters at his disposal, and that Baitullah lived with the Uzbek, who became his biggest ideological inspiration.[6]
On September 30, 2009, a man, who claimed to be Yuldashev's bodyguard, reported to the Pakistan newspaper The News International that Yuldashev was killed in a US Predator drone airstrike shortly after Mehsud's death.[7][8] US and Pakistan officials afterwards confirmed Yuldashev was killed in an airstrike on August 27, 2009.[9] Yo'ldosh reportedly lost a leg and arm in the drone missile strike on August 27, 2009 and was rushed to a hospital in Zhob in Baluchistan, but died the next day.[10] August 16, 2010 Furqun, an Uzbek-language website run by the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU, put up two images of Yuldahsev, who was described as "Shaheed Mohammed Tahir," and said he was "slain." Shaheed is a term used by Islamist groups to describer martyrs who are killed in combat. The IMU did not indicate how or when Yuldashev was killed.[11] On August 17, 2010 Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan announced its new leader, just one day after confirming the death of Tahir Yuldashev. Abu Usman Adil announced that he is the new leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU, in a statement released on the terror group's website, Furqon. In the online statement, Usman said Yuldashev was killed as a result of the Aug. 27, 2009, US Predator airstrike in South Waziristan. Prior to assuming control of the IMU, Abu Usman served for years as Yuldashev's deputy. Usman also called for his followers to wage jihad in the southern portion of Kyrgyzstan. A month after the strike last year that targeted Yuldashev as he met with South Waziristan tribal leader Mullah Nazir, a controversy over Yuldashev's reported death emerged. While the IMU officially denied that Yuldashev had been killed, members of the terror group, including one of Yuldashev's bodyguards, claimed that the emir had indeed been killed. Both Abu Usman and an IMU spokesman known as Zubair ibn Abdurakhman were said to have replaced Yuldashev. Confusion over the status of Yuldashev and the leadership of the IMU abounded within the terror group in the aftermath of the Aug. 27, 2009, airstrike, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. Yuldashev was not killed during or immediately after the Aug. 27 airstrike, but died much later of complications from wounds suffered in the strike. Top IMU leaders were jockeying for control of the group while Yuldashev attempted to recover from his injuries.[12] Yuldashev was close to Osama bin Laden and was also a member of al Qaeda's top council, the Shura Majlis.
