The Mujahadeen Shura Council in Iraq logo
To my great surprise, none of the major U.S. networks are reporting at this hour about the four Russian diplomats kidnapped earlier this month in Iraq. Today their kidnappers announced that the diplomats will be executed in 48 hours unless Russia agrees to their demands.
On June 3, 2006, a Chevrolet Tahoe carrying five Russian diplomats was cut off by a mini-van and a sedan just 1,200 feet away from the Russian embassy in Baghdad. The diplomats were shot at by gunmen armed with assault rifles. Vitaliy Titov, one of the diplomats, was severely wounded and died later that day. Four more embassy workers were kidnapped.
Today, some organization calling itself “The Mujahadeen Shura Council in Iraq” announced that “even though Russia didn’t participate in the Iraqi invasion, its government was supportive of the Crusader American invasion”. Now the “council” wants Russian Federal forces (police and army) to withdraw from Chechnya and free all Muslim prisoners in Russia within 48 hours, otherwise the diplomats will be executed. The leaders of Mujahideen Shura Council added: “But we say to those people that we do jihad against the enemies of Allah and make His Rulings prevail everywhere in the land. For us every Muslim in the world is a brother, and for him, we sacrifice our money and our people if he encounters anything. How can you ask us to forget what the weakened Muslims are encountering from the Russian government and its people?”
According to SITE (Search for Terrorist Entities) Institute, the Mujahideen Shura Council is composed of eight insurgency groups in Iraq: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, the Army of al-Sunnah Wal Jama’a, Jama’a al-Murabiteen, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers’ Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the “unbelievers gathering with different sides” and defend Islam.
Scene of the shoot-out in Baghdad
In other “jihad” news, the Associated Press keeps referring to Islamofascist terrorists in Chechnya as “rebels” and the actions of the security forces in this part of the Russian Federation (Chechnya has been a part of Russia since the 19th century) as an “invasion”. The wire story on the death of Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, the terrorist commander killed by Russian and Chechen security forces, portrays his immediate boss Akhmed Zakayev as a freedom fighter who enjoys his life in London.
Last week Putin spoke with Iranian leaders about the kidnapping of the Russian diplomats; Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad personally promised Putin Iran’s help in freeing the Russian diplomats. It is a well-known fact that all the Chechen terrorists, Taliban and other “militants”, “rebels”, “insurgents”, “fighters” – view themselves as part of a global jihad. While we are constantly told by Western experts that states have very little control over terrorism, RussiaBlog has noticed that terrorist attacks in Chechnya considerably declined after the Hamas visit to Moscow. It is no surprise that President Ahmadinejad thus far has not fulfilled his pledge and that the “brothers” united in their fight against the “infidels” – Russians and Americans.
There is some positive news in the fight against terrorism as well, demonstrating RussiaBlog’s recent thoughts about the new Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov. Mr. Kadyrov is only twenty nine years old, but is already making tremendous progress in stabilizing the region and bringing back refugees and spending reconstruction money that in the past had been stolen by corrupt officials. Many foreign policy analysts who see Putin simplistically as a “KGB officer” fail to understand complicated Russian politics and mentality. Today 29 year old former guerilla and son of a murdered Chechen President is given the Kremlin’s authority and support.
Below is part of the AP story on Kadyrov’s success in killing a top terrorist “emir”, and a close advisor to the mastermind behind the Beslan massacre, Shamil Basayev:
Grozny, Russia - Police killed the Chechen rebel leader Saturday acting on a tip from within his network, a possible blow to efforts to spread the increasingly Islam-inspired insurgency throughout southern Russia.
Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev was shot during a raid on a hideout in his Chechen hometown of Argun, nine miles east of Grozny. He had been planning a terror attack in Argun to coincide with the Group of Eight summit of leading industrialized nations in St. Petersburg in mid-July, the Moscow-backed Chechen premier said.
Wearing combat fatigues, Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov posed for TV cameras next to a half-naked bloodied body identified as the rebel leader's. He said a close associate of Sadulayev's tipped police to his whereabouts for the equivalent of $55. "He urgently needed to buy a dose of heroin, so he sold his leader for heroin," Kadyrov, flanked by his lieutenants, said with a grin.
Emir's stuff by his body - AP
The Chechen Prime Minister said his paramilitary police had wanted to capture Sadulayev but had to kill him when he resisted arrest. Russian television stations showed the basement of a house where the rebel leader was allegedly hiding, its wall riddled with bullets. "The terrorists have been virtually beheaded. They have sustained a severe blow, and they are never going to recover from it," Kadyrov said. "We must decisively end international terrorism in the whole of the North Caucasus."
RussiaBlog hopes that there are many more open-minded Muslims in the world, who would echo Kadyrov’s declared Jihad against all the terrorists, and also that journalists and leaders worldwide would stop being intimidated into using weasel words and treat terrorists with the scorn they deserve.
Here are some photos from a recent pro-terrorist demonstration in London :
