Chechen warlord Doku Umarov claims Moscow metro bombings
Chechen warlord Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the Moscow metro bombings that killed 39 people earlier this week and threatened more attacks. Is Umarov leading a Chechen version of Hamas?
This undated frame grab image made available by IntelCenter and taken from a video posted on a pro-rebel website Wednesday, purports to show Chechen warlord Doku Umarov. In the video Umarov claims responsibility for the Moscow metro bombings that killed 39 people earlier this week.
IntelCenter/AP
Moscow
A Chechen rebel warlord and self-styled "emir" of Russia's seething North Caucasus region has claimed responsibility for the Moscow metro bombings, which killed 39 people Monday. He warned of more attacks to come.
Doku Umarov – whose own violent path has traced a transition from nationalist rebel and president of the unrecognized independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to Islamist warrior who aspires to lead all Muslims of the region away from Russian rule – is emerging from the shadows as the key leader of a loose confederation of Islamist groups who are fighting against Moscow and its local proxies across Russia's turbulent and mainly-Muslim southern flank known as the North Caucasus.
"On March 29 in Moscow two special operations were carried out to destroy the infidels and to send a greeting to the FSB (Federal Security Service – the former KGB). Both of these operations were carried out on my command and will not be the last," Mr. Umarov said in a videotaped message posted on Kavkaz Center, a multilingual website run by Chechen rebels.
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