A file photo of Abu Walid Posted on 04/18/2004 8:40:00 PM PDT by Destro
Monday, April 19, 2004
Top Arab militant in Chechnya killed: Arab TV
DUBAI: Arab television station Al Arabiya said on Sunday that the leader of Arab fighters in Chechnya, Saudi-born Abu al-Waleed al-Ghamdi, had been killed in the rebel Russian region.
An official at Dubai-based Al Arabiya said the channel received the news from sources close to Ghamdi’s family in Saudi Arabia who declined to give any details except that the family was receiving condolences.
Abu al-Waleed is said by the Kremlin to be among those behind February’s bombing in Moscow.
In March, Arab television channel Al Jazeera broadcast videotape it said was by Abu al-Waleed vowing to stage a new wave of attacks inside Russia.
The Kremlin blames Chechen rebels for a spate of attacks including a suicide bombing which killed close to 50 people on a train in southern Russia before last December’s parliamentary polls and the attack on the underground, which killed around 40.
The Kremlin believes Abu al-Waleed was also among those behind the 1999 apartment bombings across Russia that prompted President Vladimir Putin to send troops back into Chechnya. —Reuters
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-04/18/article10.shtml
Commander Of Arab Fighters In Chechnya Killed
A file photo of Abu Walid
RIYADH, April 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Abdul Aziz Al-Ghamdi, the commander of Arab fighters in Chechnya, has been killed, a family member confirmed Sunday, April 18.
A brother of Ghamdi, aka Abul Walid, said the family had received news of his martyrdom Sunday morning, but did not say how the 34-year-old commander had died, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Saudi website Islam Today said Ghamdi had "been hit in the back" while preparing for prayers on Friday, April 16, adding the incidents took place in one of the camps of the mujahedeen fighting the Russian occupation forces in Chechnya.
The brother, who asked not to be named, told AFP the family were receiving condolences at their home.
He said Abul Walid, who was married to a Chechen, had been in Chechnya for the past six years and had also fought then-Soviet forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s.
Chechnya's pro-Russian President Akhmad Kadyrov said he had no knowledge of the death.
"There are major special operations under way in Chechnya, in the regions of Vedeno, Nojay-Yurt and Chelkovskoy, but no information so far concerning the death of Abul Walid," Kadyrov was quoted as saying by Ria-Novosti news agency.
The agency quoted a Russian military source as saying that Ghamdi may have been killed in a missile attack in recent days.
"There is no information about his death, but the situation will become clearer in the coming days," the source said.
Abul Walid, succeeded Arab commander Khattab, also Saudi-born, after he was killed two years ago.
Khattab, whose real name was Thamer bin Saleh al-Suwailem, and who fought with Arab fighters against Moscow's troops in Chechnya, was killed in March 2002.
Russia's intelligence agency FSB, the former KGB, said the following month that it had killed Khattab during an undercover operation that lasted more than a year and played on internal divisions among Chechen fighters.
According to Chechen fighters, Khattab died five minutes after receiving a poisoned letter, which had been delivered by a messenger known to him.
Russia claimed Khattab had links to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
A Chechen group later said its members killed the man blamed for the slaying of Khattab.
Russia kills key Chechen rebels
Sunday, April 18, 2004 Posted: 8:18 PM EDT (0018 GMT)
File picture of Abu al-Waleed al-Ghamdi.
MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russian troops have killed four Chechen rebels linked to guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev near Chechnya this weekend, capping a week-long crackdown on separatists in the turbulent Caucasus region.
The leader of Arab fighters in Muslim Chechnya, Saudi-born Abu al-Waleed al-Ghamdi with close links to Basayev, was among those killed there in recent days, his brother said on Sunday.
More than 10 rebels, including Wahhabi militants, were killed in planned "special operations" by Russian troops in the mountainous region last week, news agencies reported.
Wahhabism is a strict Islamic sect dominant in Saudi Arabia.
Heavy gunfire in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya -- just over the border from Chechnya in mainly Muslim Ingushetia -- started on Saturday and ended early Sunday after troops sealed off a house where they said important rebels were holed up.
"These people, acting on Basayev's orders ... were involved in recruiting and training young women from various regions in the North Caucasus with an aim to turn them into suicide bombers," Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian military in the Caucasus, told Itar-Tass news agency.
Among those reported killed was 27-year-old Magomed Khazhiyev, a religious leader of an ultra-radical Islamic Wahhabi community in Ingushetia's Sunzhensky region.
Russia says it bringing Chechnya, where it has fought separatist guerrillas for nine years, under control and says it is reducing its troop levels and heavy weaponry. But servicemen and police are killed daily.
The Kremlin blames Chechen rebels for a spate of attacks across Russia, including those by so-called "black widow" female suicide bombers.
Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Akhmad Kadyrov told Interfax news agency more than 10 Chechen rebels were killed in various operations across the North Caucasus in the past week.
In a separate operation early on Sunday, Russian troops killed a Wahhabi militant in the Chechen capital Grozny who Russian security services said could be linked to a suicide bomb attack on Ingush President Murat Zyazikov on April 6, Tass said.
Zyazikov was not killed in that attack.
Late on Sunday, a train carrying oil products came under fire in Chechnya and immediately caught fire, Interfax news agency reported. It was unclear who was behind the attack.
Apr 18 2004 11:42AM
Operation to eliminate rebels continuing in Chechnya
MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - Chechen police and security forces are continuing a large-scale operation to eliminate the rebel group that killed policemen and residents of Chechnya's Ishkhoi-Yurt village.
The operation is led by Ramzan Kadyrov, chief of the Chechen president's security service.
The place where the rebels are based has been encircled, Akhmad Akhmadov, chief of the presidential security service's headquarters, told Interfax.
He said the rebels had operated under the command of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov's former security chief Akhmad Avdorkhanov.
"The rebels will be either detained or eliminated," Akhmadov said.
Ramzan Kadyrov said on local television on Saturday that "the rebels will be eliminated if they don't surrender."
"We shall not spare the bandits who killed our colleagues and residents of the Ishkhoi-Yurt village," Kadyrov said. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG VIO POL] sd <>
Yes, but finding their leaders outside of Gaza hasn't been easy. For instance, is Osama dead? He should be, but we can't prove it.
Go for the top, because the leadership isn't interested in the "paradise with the 72 virgins" bull they feed their dimwitted followers, and the leadership doesn't like being killed, that's for the little people.
That's interesting.
What chemical is there which:
(1) kills through skin absorption in extremely small quantities,
(2) can be contained in a letter so that it is only released when the letter is opened?
One might congratulate the Russian chemists for getting rid of an Islamic cockroach - but, once a bullet leaves the barrel, it has no friends...
You know the Russians .....when they want something done they get it done. They needed Abu Wallid killed, hence they did it in the most optimal manner they could (I'm sure if they would have found a better way to do it than a poisoned letter they would have done so). Same thing with the Israelis .....I doubt any US politician with future political ambitions would ever give the greenlight to an Apache helicopter (or maybe even an F-16) strike at some terrorist leader who was being driven down some street in Michigan. Imagine an Apache HellFire strike in Dearborne (sp) Michigan that kills some terrorist honcho, but also takes 2 passerbys with it? Anathema! Would never happen here. However Israel has to do so because the danger they face is more immediate than what we face (we face the same, if not greater, peril but in our case it tends to come every so often since we are somehwat protected by the oceans, however Israel and Russia have terrorists both adjacent and within). They cannot afford to consider what perceptions may arise from their actions, as long as their actions lead to dead terrorists.
The Russians and Israelis take risks that would kill any US politician's re-election aspirations.
For example think about the Moscow theater situation. Most security organizations agree that it would have been impossible to take back the theater through a conventional approach (eg SWAT, or the SAS tactic the Brits used in the 80s). Hence the gas attack was the best option. And although over a hundred lives were lost, more were saved than lost (a conventional attack would probably have led to all the hostages being killed, and negotiations were not an option since the terrorists were waiting for peak media attention before blowing up the theater). Hence with the time restrictions and the high stakes, a gas attack was not only the only option but it was genius. The Russians had to do what they had to do, and that was that.
Had a theater being taken over in Manhattan, and the same situation present (mined doors, suicide vests, strategically-placed explosives, and terrorists waiting for peak media attention so they could bomb with maximum viewership hence optimal psychological efficacy) , I wonder what would have happened. If someone decided to save the maximum number of people then something similar to what the Russians did would have occured (and the person who authorized the rescue would have been demoted and made a pariah by the media because many people would have died, even though more would have been saved); or else nothing would happen and the terrorists would kill every person in the theater.
Basically the Russians, and Israelis, put very little currency in perception. What they look at is results. And if we faced constant terror attacks like those 2 nations face, or if another 9-11 happened (God forbid), then even we would not be as PC as we are.
And sadly i feel there will come a time when even we shall stop trying to 'win over hearts and minds' and start crushing terrorists ten-fold for everything they do. Instead of blaring loud music in places like Fallujah you shall be seeing AC-130 gunships having their cannon boom and reverberate 'til the horizon. Sadly something bad will ahve to occur before that.
Congratulations and from your lips to God's ears.
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