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"Our president [Ramzan Kadyrov] gave the order. They called us and we came,” 33-year-old Zelimhan tells VICE News. The bearded fighter, a member of a unit known as the “Wild Division,” says he arrived a week ago with 34 Chechen men who volunteered to come and support their “brothers” in the People’s Republic of Donetsk. Russia and the authorities of the rebel republic have repeatedly denied allegations that foreign groups are crossing into Ukraine to fight alongside the rebels. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has said that the country is under “undisguised aggression” from Moscow, which is “exporting foreign terrorism” to the...

Today's combat in and near Slovyansk between Russian-backed insurgents and Ukranian military personnel resulted in 30 insurgent/terrorist dead, according to a Ukranian government statement... But the interesting thing is that Chechen soldiers were amongst the 'rebels' killed in the battle for a key checkpoint north of the city- what the hell are they doing there? Furthermore, local Ukrainians taped 'rebels' who just appeared manning another ('pro-Russian) checkpoint who were speaking a strange foreign language that was clearly not Slavic...  [video/graphics] Earlier reports also had some Transdniestrans -from a breakaway strip of Moldova that wants to be annexed by Russia- showing up...

War in Western eyes involves an orderly sequence of ultimatums, declarations of war, invasions, counterattacks, second and third fronts, and finally a negotiated surrender, payment of reparations and a new territorial settlement. Annoyingly, Vladimir Putin is not following that script Edward Lucas writes. The Latvian defence analyst Jānis Bērziņš has written an excellent new paper (available at is.gd/berzins) outlining Russia’s approach to “new-generation warfare”, based on analysis of material in the Russian military press. He argues that the new frontline in this kind of conflict is mental, not physical. Russia uses psychological warfare, intimidation, bribery, and propaganda to undermine resistance...

Russia challenging Saudi Arabia’s dominance in world energy market Oil will be high on the agenda at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weekend summit meeting with George W. Bush at Camp David ­ Russian oil for US consumers, to reduce dependence on Saudi Arabia. Across the globe in Beijing, Putin’s prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, this week haggled with his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jaibao, on building a 2,400-kilometer, $2.5 billion oil pipeline from Siberia to China, which is crying out for energy to fuel its burgeoning economy. Saudi oil may be far cheaper to produce, but a steady supply from Russia is...

Imagine if these savages win ..... Golem writes: Execution in Idlib by Jabhat al-Nusra. Victims are apparently "Sunni supporter of Al-Assad". The white jihadists are Chechens and perhaps Dagestani judging from their Russian accents. The same ethnicity as the Boston bombers, if you remember the younger bomber on his vkontakte page had web videos supporting jihad in Syria. The most disturbing aspect is all the little children there cheering people being beheaded.

The al-Qaida brand continues to influence terror operations in different corners of the world even as U.S. Special Forces and drone attacks weaken its core leadership, a terror specialist told Newsmax. “The ideology that they’ve created continues to inspire people,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terror specialist at Georgetown University. “The spread of franchises is indicative of the fact that the brand of al-Qaida today is as strong as it’s ever been.” The organization has changed tactics and has revived or started terror franchises in Iraq, Syria, across Northern Africa, and in Nigeria. It is now more active and in more...

On April 22, two Orthodox bishops of Aleppo, Syria, were kidnapped by U.S.-supported Islamist fighters. Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yaziji were kidnapped as they were returning from an attempt to obtain the release of two priests previously kidnapped. The priests, Father Michel Kayyal, an Armenian Catholic, and Father Maher Mahfouz, a Greek Orthodox, were kidnapped in February and still remain in the hands of the Islamist fighters the Western media refer to as “rebels.” In a Huffington Post article, Orthodox priest Peter-Michael Preble said of the two kidnapped bishops: “They were on a mission...

Two years ago today, SEAL Team Six sent Osama bin Laden on his way to Davy Jones’ Locker — but his Islamist terror machine is anything but sinking to the depths. It remains a vicious, global threat. Since Osama’s demise, the terror group’s strength has ebbed in some areas, but flowed strongly in others. Indeed, one current estimate concludes that al Qaeda affiliates and associates (i.e., groups, cells or operatives) are active in more than 30 countries (of some 190) on four continents. Including our continent. While we don’t yet know the whole story behind the Boston bombing, just last...

As the fallout from the Boston bombing continues, Americans are coming to terms with the realities of the terrorist threats we are facing in our country. Part of this is adopting a prepared mindset to meet the threats where they occur. The Chechens are here. So are Muslims from Dagestan, Albania, and Bosnia. Much has been made in the press about the more Caucasian look of the Tsarnaev brothers. But what sets the radicalized segments of these ethnic groups apart from their Middle Eastern counterparts, is not so much the racial aspects of their ethnicities, but the way they fight....

Ali Tepsurkaev was at work on a construction site in Nantucket when his boss approached him to deliver the news: the two prime suspects had been identified as ethnic Chechens “I was so upset, I couldn’t work,” said Mr. Tepsurkaev, Until a few days ago, most Chechens in the United States lived largely anonymous lives. Few Americans even knew what and where Chechnya was. Now, two Chechen brothers are at the center of one of the most serious terrorist attacks on the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. While the motivations behind the bombings are still unknown, the attack has...

A website prominently used by Russia’s North Caucasus rebels on Sunday denied any connection to the Boston Marathon bombings that have been blamed on two ethnic-Chechen suspects. “The command of the Vilayat Dagestan mujaheddin… declares that the Caucasus fighters are not waging any military activities against the United States of America. We are only fighting Russia,” the Kavkacenter.com website said in an official statement. The main suspects in the Boston bombings were Tsarnaev brothers, and police is still investigation any possible connections with known rebel and terrorist groups. Police and FBI are still conducting an investigation if the brothers acted...

North Caucasus rebels deny link to Boston attack By Dmitry Zaks (AFP) – 1 hour ago MOSCOW, Russia — A prominent rebel group from Russia's North Caucasus on Sunday denied any link to the deadly Boston Marathon bombings that have been blamed on two ethnic-Chechen suspects.

Chechen Group Behind Beslan Claims Attack Kadyrov Vows To Wipe Out Islamic Militants June 29, 2009 MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Chechen rebel group behind the 2004 Beslan school massacre has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last week that badly wounded the president of Russia's southern region of Ingushetia.

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Chechnya's Russian-backed president has hit out at America for killing one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and blamed the US for moulding them into terrorists. Chechen-born Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died from gunshot wounds and possible blast injuries after a fierce gun battle rocked the Watertown area of Boston hours after a police officer was shot dead at the nearby MIT campus. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokha, fled the shoot out and is on the run, reportedly having strapped explosives to his body. But President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former Chechen rebel himself, told US authorities that 'any attempt to draw a...

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July. The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. The intelligence report was supplied to the...

The attack came as the bus sat outside Terminal 2 at the airport, according to Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt. The bus driver and a passenger were killed, and one person suffered serious wounds and another light injuries, he said. A source tells Fox News that the shooter yelled "Allah Akbar" when opening fire on the U.S. military personnel. He then dropped his gun at the scene, ran into the terminal and was subdued. U.S. Air Force Europe spokeswoman Maj. Beverly Mock said all four victims were airmen. They were all based at the Lakenheath military base in Britain. A...

Russian security services warned in December that there were two attack teams primed to carry out attacks, sparking fears there could still be terrorists at large who were prepared to carry out another attack. Intelligence sources said that one of the squads was likely to have established a base, at a house in Moscow, where the suicide belts to be used in attacks were assembled. Russian security sources said yesterday that a male and female suicide bomber from the Black Widow brigades had carried out the bombing together. The attack had been closely supervised by three accomplices, who had watched...

‘MK’ was in the terrorists’ lair to find out why the New Year’s Eve attack failed A terrorist attack on Moscow had been planned since the beginning of November, security service sources told ‘MK’. A blast was planned for the night of December 31st-January 1st, at the scene of the most popular New Year’s Eve celebrations, but the blast took place early, within a few hours of the festive midnight. According to one theory it was by shear luck: Spam – A Happy New Year greeting from the phone company - was sent to the suicide bomber’s cell phone. The...