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December 17, 2005
Russia: Confirmation that Bombed Islamist Was Al-Qaeda Commander
Confirmation comes today from MosNews of an event first reported in weblogs, namely Evan Kohlmann in the Counterterrorism Blog and Rantburg.
At the start of the month, the blogs claimed that a man who had blown himself up in Dagestan, in the Caucasus, rather than be captured by Russian security forces, was a leading member of al-Qaeda.
The individual was Abu Omar Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Saif (aka Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Saif al-Jaber), who was a Saudi Al Qaeda commander and military adviser to Shamil Basayev (author of the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren).
Al-Saif (pictured) was named as a suspect in terror attacks in Chechnya and also for the planning of the Nord Ost theatre siege in Moscow. In January 2000 he gave an interview to Babar Ahmad's Azzam website (Ahmad is soon to be extradited to the US on terror charges, as we reported on November 16). In the interview, al-Saif said:
"Islamic issues can only be solved by Islamic means, namely through abiding by Sharia (Divine Law) and not Western proposals or United Nations conditions. Any resolution through non-Islamic means places the future of Muslims in the hands of tyrants who will never accept the rise of an Islamic state......A document can be downloaded from Global Terror.net, in which al-Saif expounds his ideology. He states: "Allah has made the jihad legal in order to fight for his sake, in order to make his word supreme, and in order for the religion to be totally committed to Allah. It is said,"Fight them until there is no more dissent and the religion of Allah is supreme." The word of Allah is a written one, which means that the laws of the Quran will be the dominant ones. Your jihad against the crusaders is an act aimed to protect the Islamic religion, which our enemies want to erase from the hearts and lives of the Muslims."All of the Mujahideen's victories are attributed solely to Allah Most High... The jihad in Chechnya should serve as an example to all Muslims throughout the world that any Muslim rights that are forcibly usurped, including land, cannot be restored except through force. Negotiations only serve to lose one's rights and honour. Let us consider Palestine as an example. There are a small number of Jews occupying Palestine. The Arabs outnumber them and have larger military forces, however, instead of fighting for the sake of Allah like their brothers in Chechnya, the Arabs (nationalists and secularists) chose to negotiate with their enemy. This has resulted in the humiliation of the Arabs, and has failed to restore Arab rights and territories.
Mosnews states that Nikolai Patrushev, Director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), has confirmed that al-Saif was killed in November in the south of Dagestan.
Al-Saif had been sent to the North Caucasus region by Osama bin Laden a decade ago. He ran underground terror cells in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, while operating under the cover of being a representative of the Al Haramain foundation.
Al Haramain was a Saudi-based international "charity" which funds (and still funds) terror. It was involved in the Oregon Jihad, and is still active in Bangladesh. The group was "designated" by the US Treasury in September 2004, with the Bosnia and Somalia branches designated in 2002.
Al-Saif was made al-Qaeda's leader of the North Caucasus in 2004, after its former leader Abu al-Walid was killed in April 2004, and this year he moved from Ingushetia to Dagestan.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 17, 2005 5:49 AM
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