The first mention of armed groups of
Chechen militants in
Syria appeared in a number of media outlets at the end of 2011.[1][2][3] In October 2012, some publications wrote that
Chechens as part of the
Syrian opposition forces of the
FSA and
Jabhat al-Nusra took part in an attack on the military base of the Syrian army air defense brigade near
Aleppo.[1][4][5]
Chechens occupied the second largest number among the foreign contingent of jihadists in
Syria, estimates of their number range from 1,700 to 3,000 people, they played a significant role in the civil war in Syria, and several dozen well-known commanders of Syrian rebels and jihadists were
Chechens by origin.[1][12][13][14][15] Some of them were veterans of the first and
second Chechen wars and used their combat experience to train and train the
Syrian opposition and militants.[16][17][18][19] They formed their own armed detachments and jamaats, which were also joined by other militants from the
North Caucasus, as well as Syrians and jihadists from all over the
Middle East.[20][21][2][22][23][24]
In June 2013, the leadership of the
Chechen Republic officially recognized that up to 1,700 Chechen natives were howling in the Middle East region.[2][26] In the same year, according to information disseminated by the militants' Internet resources, as well as in the Russian media, Rustam Gelaev, the son of the famous Chechen commander
Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelaev, was killed in Syria.[27][2] Rustam died fighting on the side of the Syrian opposition.[28][29][30]
This conflict was also reflected among the
ChechenMujahideen in Syria, in particular among the
Chechenemirs, who had previously acted in alliance with each other. Some of them defected to the
ISIS and took leadership positions, while some remained on the side of
Jabhat al-Nusra and the
Syrian opposition.[34][35]
The very history of the conflict between
Jabhat al-Nusra and
ISIS (at that time, the
Islamic State of Iraq) begins at the end of 2013, when units of the
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) invaded
Syria from the territory of
Iraq during the most active phase of the civil war, when various jihadist groups and the Syrian opposition began to consistently seize cities from the government army of
Bashar al-Assad.
Al-Qaeda in Syria (
Jabhat al-Nusra) together with the
Ahrar al-Sham group played a significant role in the capture of the city of
Raqqa in eastern Syria in March 2013. However, after the capture of
Raqqa, the head of the Syrian wing of
Al-Qaeda expressed his loyalty to the main leader of
Al-Qaeda,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, and did not recognize the
Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (
Syria) proclaimed by the leadership of the ISI in the territory controlled by
Jabhat al-Nusra. After that, in February 2014, a large-scale war for spheres of influence in
Syria began between the groups.[36][37][38]
The Syrian Jihad : Al-Qaeda, the Islamic state and the evolution of an insurgency
Cecire, Michael (2016). "Same sides of different coins: contrasting militant activisms between Georgian fighters in Syria and Ukraine". Caucasus Survey. Brill Deutschland GmbH. 4 (3): 282–295.
doi:
10.1080/23761199.2016.1231382.
ISSN2376-1199.
Vera Mironova. From Freedom Fighters to Jihadists: Human Resources of Non-State Armed Groups. — Oxford University Press, 2019-05-20. — 345 с. —
ISBN978-0-19-093978-6.
The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency
Pokalova, Elena. Georgia, Terrorism, and Foreign Fighters
Assessing Terrorism in the Caucasus and the Threat to the Homeland: Hearing
In Russian
Майкл Вайс, Хасан Хасан. Исламское государство: Армия террора. — Альпина Паблишер, 2015-11-03. — 346 с. — ISBN 978-5-9614-4068-3.
Даша Никольсон. Иностранные боевики-террористы с Северного Кавказа: понимание влияния Исламского государства в этом регионе // Connections: The Quarterly Journal. — 2017. — Т. 16, вып. 4