Russia beefing up security in Caucasus to prevent ISIS emergence
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.
