Russia Says Rebel Killed in Caucasus was Trained in Syria
One of three suspected rebels killed in fighting in the restive North Caucasus was trained by "terrorists" in a camp in Syria, Russian authorities said Thursday.
The trio were killed by special forces on Tuesday in the Kabardino-Balkaria region, near Georgia, close to a mountain village called Lechinkai, said a spokesman for the national anti-terror committee, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
It said the troops had tried to stop a "suspect car" for a routine check when the occupants opened fire, triggering a gunfight with the forces.
They named one of those killed as Nazir Tokhov, a local man born in 1989, whom the spokesman said traveled to Syria for "terrorist training" before returning to Kabardino-Balkaria to form an armed group of former detainees who had "perpetrated terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus" .
Kabardino-Balkaria is usually seen as one of the more peaceful parts of Russia's North Caucasus but is close to the republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, which have become a hotbed of Islamist extremism where armed rebels regularly target Russian security forces.
Islamists in the North Caucasus have previously been united under a local Caucasus Emirate organisation, but are now increasingly flocking to Islamic State. In June, they said they had sworn allegiance to IS, active in Syria and Iraq, the same month the IS group declared it had established a franchise in the North Caucasus.
Since September 30, Russia, an ally of the Damascus regime, has carried out air strikes in Syria aimed at IS and other "terrorists". It promised to step up the attacks after an attack claimed by IS jihadists brought down a Russian plane at the end of October in the Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.
Some 2,000 Russian nationals, mainly from the North Caucasus, are battling alongside IS fighters in Syria and Iraq, according to Russian intelligence.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://mobile.naharnet.com/stories/en/197906 |