Russia beefing up security in Caucasus to prevent ISIS emergence

Nahla Abdelmonem

The Russian army has collected intelligence about the presence of a number of militants in Khasavyurt district in the Republic of Dagestan in southwest Russia.

The militants, the army said, plan terrorist attacks on law-enforcement officers and politicians.

According to the British newspaper, Daily Mail, the militants used modern arms, hand grenades in attacking law-enforcement troops.

The attack left one soldier injured, but caused no casualties among civilians or Russian army troops.

Rising terrorism

Russia has been beefing up security in a number of areas to keep the lid on the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the Caucasus.

On May 13, Moscow launched a military operation in Ingushetia near the border with Chechnya. Russian troops were asked to comb forests in the area in search of militants hiding in them.

Commanding the militants, the Russian army says, is a 45-year-old man who is a close associate of the ISIS Caucasus emir Dokka Umarov.

The same man masterminded and carried out an attack on Domodedovo Airport in Moscow in January 2011. Dozens of people were killed in the attack.

Return

Russia was hoping to eradicate Islamist insurgency in the Caucasus for good.

A number of Soviet Union Republics wanted to have independence in the 1990s, opening the door for war.

This caused Islamist organizations to mobilize their members against Moscow and call for launching what they called “jihad” against it.

This turned the region into a fertile ground for terrorism, especially with a number of former Soviet Union republics gaining independence.

Some people attribute the rise in extremism in the region to the declaration by ISIS of an emirate in it in 2015.