Eighth

The head of the armed underground of Dagestan was liquidated

On Monday night, in the Levashinsky district of Dagestan, two cars were blocked by the FSB special forces and the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs. During the battle, four alleged militants were killed. Among those killed, according to the National...

On Monday night, in the Levashinsky district of Dagestan, two cars were blocked by the FSB special forces and the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs.

During the battle, four alleged militants were killed. Among those killed, according to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, is Amir Khasan, the eighth leader of the armed underground in Dagestan, 43-year-old Israpil Validzhanov. Seven of its predecessors had been destroyed in previous years.

Validzhanov was appointed Amir (commander of the armed forces of the Dagestan Front) and Wali of Dagestan (administrative ruler) on September 1, 2010, after the liquidation of the former Amir Magomedali Vagabov.

Prior to this, the name of Israpil Validzhanov was widely known only in the mountainous regions of southern Dagestan. He headed the "Derbent Jamaat" - the largest armed unit in South Dagestan, a territory where about half a million people live. According to the NAC, it was Validzhanov “in 2006 who created illegal bandit formations from among the local youth in Yuzhdag” - it was during this period that he was put on the federal wanted list.

It should be noted that South Dagestan has long remained a calm region, in contrast to the North, where the armed underground has been actively asserting itself since the early 2000s. It was then that participants in both Chechen wars began to return to their homeland from neighboring Chechnya.

After going through the Khattab training camp in the vicinity of the Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt and participating in the second Chechen campaign, Validzhanov also returned. At first he was a member of the "Makhachkala Jamaat". Then he was sent by the first Amir of Dagestan Rasul Maksharipov to South Dagestan, where since 2005 the situation began to change dramatically. Law enforcement agencies began to forcefully squeeze out, at that time, very few, Yuzhdag Wahhabis "into the forest." Mass beatings began to be practiced, facts of torture and executions on religious grounds appeared. And scattered armed groups appeared on the territory of Yuzhdag. Later they united in the "Derbent jamaat", which was headed by a participant in both Chechen wars, Ilgar Mollachiev, and Israpil Validzhanov became his deputy.

After the death of Mollachiev in 2008, he became the commander of the southern sector of the Dagestan Front. Under his leadership, all operations against law enforcement officers in the territory of South Dagestan took place. Their main tactic is regular targeted sabotage.

However, after the death of Vagabov, as Emir of the Dagestan Front, Validzhanov continued the policy of the former Amir, aimed at major terrorist attacks using suicide bombers. Thus, it is Amir Hasan who is credited with the terrorist attack in June 2010 at a military training ground in Buynaksk, which killed 5 servicemen. He is also credited with involvement in the terrorist attack at the Domodedovo airport, and the failed New Year's attacks in Moscow, the double terrorist attack in Gubden, as well as the recent ambushes in the Tsuntinsky and Tsumadinsky districts of Dagestan, as a result of which 7 law enforcement officers were killed.