Thursday, October 22, 2015


Russian-Speaking Militants Prepare To Fight Assad In Hama

A photo from social media showing Uzbek extremist Abu Ubayda al-Madani (nom de guerre) from the group Liwa al-Muhajireen (Foreign Jihadi Fighters Brigade) lecturing other militants, purportedly before a Hama offensive.

Joanna Paraszczuk

Two Russian-speaking militant groups, including a battalion within Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al-Nusra Front, claim they are preparing to fight Syrian government forces in the central province of Hama.

The declarations come three weeks after Russia launched air strikes that initially appeared to help Syrian government forces retake some territory, at least temporarily, including in Hama. 

Members of Liwa al-Muhajireen (Foreign Jihadi Fighters Brigade), an Uzbek-led, mostly Russian-speaking foreign-fighter group battalion within the Al-Nusra Front, posted photographs on social media this week purporting to show fighters preparing for the operation in Hama. The photos show the group's leader, a 24-year-old Uzbek militant who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Ubayda al-Madani, giving a lecture to militants. 

Liwa al-Muhajireen is the name for a new, expanded group formed from the Al-Nusra Front's pre-existing Katiba Sayfullah faction and a recent influx of about 100 mostly North Caucasus and Central Asian fighters from the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar group. (Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, a predominantly Arabic-speaking Islamist faction, was absorbed into the Al-Nusra Front in September when its members pledged allegiance to Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani.)

Another, smaller Russian-speaking group, Ajnad al-Kavkaz, also claimed this week that it is preparing to fight in Hama.

Ajnad al-Kavkaz is a Chechen-led faction based in the mountains in the north of Syria's Latakia province, which hosts a major Russian electronic eavesdropping facility. Ajnad al-Kavkaz's leader is Abdul Hakim Shishani (Khamzat Azhiev), who is thought to come from the Chechen capital, Grozny, and who came to Syria around late 2012 after sustaining a hand injury fighting alongside militants in the North Caucasus.

Ajnad al-Kavkaz has previously fought in battlefield coalitions with the Al-Nusra Front in Idlib province. Its leader, Abdul Hakim, was photographed during that offensive with Abdullah Mohaisany, a pro-Nusra Saudi cleric who has praised North Caucasian militants for their fighting abilities.

It is likely that Ajnad al-Kavkaz will fight in northern Hama alongside the Al-Nusra Front.

Before the Russian air campaign began last month, the Russian media mistakenly identified Ajnad al-Kavkaz as the Islamic State (IS) militant group, although it has no relationship with IS. The group has said that it is supportive of the North Caucasus-based Islamist militant group the Caucasus Emirate, though it does not have formal allegiance to it. 

Assad's Hama Offensive

Since Russia entered the conflict on September 30, its warplanes have been supporting ground offensives by Syrian government forces to regain territory from rebels in Latakia, the al-Ghab Plain in Idlib and Hama, and in northern Hama province. 

Although -- with Russian air cover -- Syrian government forces made some gains in Hama earlier this month, rebels have managed to push back and regain some areas. 

In the first two weeks of October, Syrian ground troops attempted to advance through northern Hama into Idlib province but were pushed back, thanks partly to rebel use of antitank weapons -- among them U.S-made TOW missiles supplied by Saudi Arabia. 

South Aleppo

Another Russian-speaking faction, the Caucasus Emirate in Syria group, says it is one of a number of rebel groups battling Syrian government forces in the countryside south of Aleppo.

The group claimed this week to have captured weapons from Syrian forces in the area.

The Caucasus Emirate in Syria is -- as its name suggests -- the official Syrian affiliate of the North Caucasus-based Caucasus Emirate group. Its leader is an ethnic Chechen from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, Salakhuddin Shishani (Feyzulla Margoshvili). The group was previously part of the Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar faction.

The Syrian Army began its ground offensive south of Aleppo city on October 16, under cover from Russian air strikes.

The area is controlled by a number of rebel groups, including the Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist fighters. The Nour al-Din al-Zinki Brigades group, which has received military training from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is also fighting in the area, and saw one of its commanders killed this week. 

Pro-Assad forces have taken control of at least three villages in the area over the past four days, Turkey-based rebel activist Faraj Shahid told The New York Times on September 21. 

The offensive south of Aleppo has caused the displacement of around 35,000 people, many of whom are in urgent need of food and other basic items, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

Sources in southern Aleppo told RFE/RL on October 21 that they believed a far greater number of civilians have been displaced.


Meet the Russian-Speaking Al-Qaeda 'Publicist' Who Openly Fundraises Online

Abu Rofik remains highly visible at a time when many Islamist militants have gone underground.

Joanna Paraszczuk

"My name is Abu Rofik, I am a publicist and blogger and an independent military instructor, I cover events in Syria and have spent quite some time here."

The author of those lines -- made in a Facebook post on October 18 -- is a 23-year-old Russian-speaking militant from Central Asia who has attached himself to Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front, in Aleppo province.

At a time when a number of Islamic State (IS) militants have gone underground, deleting their social media profiles for fear U.S.-led anti-IS coalition bombers will track them down Abu Rofik remains highly visible, even giving an interview last week to a Norwegian newspaper, Verdens Gang.

Abu Rofik has maintained a consistent and prolific presence on social media for more than 18 months. He currently has multiple accounts on the Russian social networking site VKontakte, and at least one account on both Facebook and Twitter. 

When his accounts are banned, he opens new ones, usually under a pseudonym. But Abu Rofik always identifies himself in his posts including via a Russian hashtag, "Soldier of the Levant." He also posts large numbers of "selfies" -- photographs of himself dressed in military fatigues and posing with guns -- although he always covers part of his face.

Fundraising & Recruiting 

Abu Rofik makes frequent appeals via social media, asking supporters of "jihad" and Al-Qaeda to donate to help Al-Nusra purchase military equipment. 

He has also issued calls to would-be militants in Russia to join the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, suggesting that potential Al-Qaeda recruits contact him via private message for advice on how to travel to Syria.

"We are waiting for you! Will you not come? The most favored thing that a slave can do for the Almighty is to be zealous in the path of Allah with his property and soul," Abu Rofik wrote on his VKontakte page on October 17.

In a Facebook post on October 18, Abu Rofik called on Al-Qaeda supporters to give generously to "help brothers who want to come [to Syria]."

Training Nusra

Abu Rofik is part of a foreign fighter group within the Al-Nusra Front. Named Katiba Sayfullah after its original leader, an ethnic Chechen from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge named Sayfullakh Shishani, the group is now led by a 24-year-old ethnic Uzbek who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Ubayda al-Madani.

According to his social-media posts, Abu Rofik's "job" is to train new Al-Nusra militants in rifle and sniper shooting.

Although he recruits, trains, and fundraises for Katiba Sayfullah, Abu Rofik has said in his social-media postings that he has not given an oath of allegiance to the Al-Nusra Front.

Abu Rofik also does not fight in battles, despite his penchant for posing in military gear.

Ethnic Uzbek Or Meskhetian Turk?

Abu Rofik is thought to be from Uzbekistan and to have lived in Russia before coming to Syria.

The Russian-speaking militant told a pro-Nusra Turkish website last year that he was an ethnic Uzbek, which is consistent with the Uzbek-accented Russian he speaks in various videos he has published online.

In his social media profiles, Abu Rofik claims to have lived in Kazan in Russia.

The militant has also claimed to be a Meskhetian Turk, an ethnic Turkish people who formerly lived in the Meskheti region of Georgia, but who were dispersed throughout the former Soviet Union, including Uzbekistan.

Deadbeat Dad

Abu Rofik claims to have been married several times.

In a post on October 3, signed with his identifying hashtag, Abu Rofik complained that people had criticized his numerous marriages.

"'He was married several times, he's a womanizer etc.', I hear these words sometimes," Abu Rofik wrote in a post in which he called on his "brothers" to marry "righteous" women.

The militant has also posted photographs of a young child he says is his son, whom he abandoned in Russia two years ago when he went to Syria. 

A screen shot of a social-media post by Islamic militant Abu Rofik about his son
A screen shot of a social-media post by Islamic militant Abu Rofik about his son

Abu Rofik's current marital status is unclear. He has said he does not have a wife in Syria, but has conducted an online romance on VKontakte with a woman who calls herself Muslima Abdullaeva.

It is not clear, however, whether "Muslima Abdullaeva" is a real person, or yet another alias of Abu Rofik.

'Helping Syria'

In his interview with Verdens Gang, Abu Rofik said he came to Syria to "defend and help liberate" the Syrian people from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Abu Rofik, who posted his original comments to Verdens Gang in Russian on one of his VKontakte pages, said that the "lying media" in the West had misunderstood the Al-Nusra Front.

"Do not believe the media," Abu Rofik wrote, adding that Al-Nusra Front's goal was not "the murder of Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims who are not fighting against us."

"Our goal is the liberation of Muslim lands from tyrants and occupiers and their regimes, which are foreign to Muslims and which oppose Islam. And our goal is to build a real Islamic state."


'Next Generation' Stars In IS Terror-Training Video Of 'Caliphate Cub'

A screen grab from a video on the Facebook page of an Islamic State (IS) militant from Kazakhstan, Abu Aisha al-Kazakhi (aka Artyom Andreyev), shows a young child in military-style training.

Joanna Paraszczuk

A small child crawls commando-style under barbed wire, shouting "God is Great!" as his Islamic State (IS) "trainers" fire shots at the ground inches in front of his face.

The boy at the terrorist training camp in the shocking, 34-second video appears to be under the age of 10. He has straight, roughly shoulder-length hair and is dressed in military fatigues.

It is the latest instance of Russian-speaking IS militants going beyond merely dressing up their tots to show devotion to the radical Islamist group, and actually instructing them in the ways of warfare.

The clip was shared on the Facebook page of an IS militant from Kazakhstan, Abu Aisha al-Kazakhi, on October 14. The boy looks similar in age, size, and appearance to Abu Aisha's son Abdrakhman, though his face is never seen -- and Abu Aisha deleted an initial Facebook comment in which he suggested the child was his. 

But over the past few months Abu Aisha, who also goes under the name Artyom Andreyev, has posted a number of videos and photographs of Abdrakhman being trained and indoctrinated as one of the "next generation" of IS militants.

Abdrakhman, who is under 10, has been pictured dressed in military fatigues, brandishing various weapons and repeating pro-IS slogans.

In one video, Abdrakhman is shown holding a handgun and yelling praise to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In another photograph, the young child is standing next to his elder sister and Abu Aisha's daughter, a small girl of about 10. He is wielding what looks like a hunting knife.

A third photograph shows Abdrakhman standing outside a juice bar, apparently in Mosul. The child is dressed in military fatigues and is holding a gun, probably a toy weapon. 

Abdrakhman in fatigues outside a Mosul juice bar
Abdrakhman in fatigues outside a Mosul juice bar

'IS Babies'

Dressing babies and toddlers as fighters has emerged as a trend among Russian-speaking IS militants, who are seeking to show their devotion to the IS group. 

But photos and videos posted on the personal social-media accounts of IS fighters like Abu Aisha reveal an even more disturbing trend of parents training their children to think and fight like adult militants.

Abu Aisha, who has maintained several accounts on Facebook and the Russian social-networking site VKontakte, has posted about how he wants his son to be brought up in IS's violent interpretation of Islam.

In June, Abu Aisha vowed in a post on his now-deleted VKontakte account that he would raise his two children in the "Islam and the Islamic State." 

Apart from Abu Aisha's obvious attempts to train and militarize his small son, there is ample evidence -- not just from official IS propaganda but also from material shared by individual militants -- that ethnic Kazakh children are undergoing training in IS camps in Syria and Iraq.

A video uploaded by Abu Aisha last month of adult Kazakh IS militants closes with footage of a group of Kazakh children and toddlers sitting together on a mat. One of the children is undergoing physical training, doing push-ups as the others look on. 

And an IS video released late last year showed a group of Kazakh children undergoing military and ideological training in Syria or Iraq. 

Child 'Martyrs'

In addition to training his own small son to be a militant, Abu Aisha has praised other Central Asian fathers who have allowed their teenage sons to fight -- and die -- on the battlefield alongside IS.

In a post on a now-deleted VKontakte account in May, Abu Aisha lauded a militant from Kyrgyzstan who came to Iraq with his wife and five children and whose 15-year-old son had been killed in battle.

"Brothers, such fathers who sacrifice their sons on the path of Allah are very rare," Abu Aisha wrote.

From Atyrau To Mosul, Via Istanbul

Abu Aisha claims to be from Atyrau, Kazakhstan's main Caspian Sea port. He says he is 30 years old and stationed with his children in Mosul, where he is seeking another wife.

It is not clear exactly how long Abu Aisha has been in IS-controlled Iraq, but his posts and photographs suggest he has been in Mosul for at least a year and was in Syria previously.

He described in a September 6 Facebook post how he crossed into Syria after first flying to Istanbul with his wife and children. There, he met a prearranged contact and was taken to an "IS apartment" where there were around 15 other new recruits of different nationalities. 

The Turkish police raided the apartment, Abu Aisha wrote, but they only arrested one man who did not have a passport.

The rest, including Abu Aisha, crossed into Syria soon afterward.


Daghestani Imam Arrested In Berlin On Suspicion Of Recruiting IS Militants

Daghestani Imam Murad Atajev is also suspected of purchasing military equipment, including rifle scopes and night-vision devices, for militant groups in Syria.

Joanna Paraszczuk

A notorious Daghestani imam who openly runs pro-Islamic State (IS) social-media accounts has been arrested in Berlin on suspicion of recruiting IS militants.

The suspect is Gadzhimurad K., better known as Murad Atajev. He was detained on October 14

A well-known figure in the Russian-language pro-jihadi world, the 30-year-old Atajev is a Russian national from Daghestan who is the imam of a Russian-speaking mosque in Berlin.

A joint statement from the Berlin prosecutor's office and the police said that Atajev was suspected of recruiting IS supporters and militants via the Internet, according to Deutsche Welle

The Daghestani is also suspected of purchasing military equipment, including rifle scopes and night-vision devices, for militant groups in Syria.

The Russian state-run news outlet RIA Novosti quoted a representative of the Berlin prosecutor's office as saying that Atajev was "accused of recruiting young people, mostly of Chechen origin, who were worshippers in his mosque, and also via social networks to send them to Syria to fight alongside IS." 

Ties To Recruiters?

Atajev is thought to be connected to a group of individuals from a second mosque in Berlin's Moabit neighborhood, including Ismet D., a 41-year-old man of Turkish origin arrested alongside another individual in January on suspicion of involvement in recruiting Turkish and Russian nationals from Chechnya and Daghestan to fight in Syria. 

The German authorities have alleged that those involved in the group procured funding to help send fighters to Syria as well as for military equipment such as night goggles -- allegations similar to those now being leveled against Atajev.

'Information Activism'

This is not the first time that the authorities in Germany have investigated Atajev regarding his connections with IS.

In May, Berlin police investigated a media interview the Daghestani imam gave to the Russian news website Meduza, which quoted Atajev as describing himself as an "information aggregator" for IS. 

Atajev later complained that Meduza had "mixed up" his words and that he had not personally written any of the pro-IS material he was spreading.

Atajev was not charged following his police questioning, and afterward he continued to promote IS on various social-media platforms.

Spreading IS Propaganda

Atajev calls himself an "information activist" and has denied that he is an official IS propagandist or recruiter. But to say that Atajev is a well-known figure in the Russian-language "jihadosphere" -- the loose network of pro-jihad social media and forums -- would be an understatement.

For over a year now, the Daghestani imam has run a number of accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and the Russian social-media site VKontakte, where has been prolific in posting news about IS's activities in Syria and Iraq, as well as other pro-jihad information.

Atajev currently tweets as @AtajevWitness, and has had several previous accounts suspended by Twitter for violation of the site's terms of service. 

A screen grab of Murad Atajev's Twitter account
A screen grab of Murad Atajev's Twitter account

On October 8, Atajev opened an account, ST-News, on Telegram to promote IS-related news. In a promotional tweet for the account, Atajev described it as "the news channel of the informational publication ST-News with an analytical overview of Middle Eastern events and the military situation around the Islamic State (IS)." 

A screen grab of Murad Atajev's Telegram IS news account that he openly runs
A screen grab of Murad Atajev's Telegram IS news account that he openly runs

Atajev was previously connected with a group known as ShamToday, a media group run by Russian-speaking IS militants close to IS military commander Tarkhan Batirashvili (aka Umar al-Shishani).

ShamToday published a number of videos of Friday sermons given by Atajev at his Berlin mosque. 

Atajev also spoke on ShamToday broadcasts run via the social-networking channel Zello, including a broadcast in November 2014 that discussed IS scholars' responses to issues of Shari'a law

ShamToday was the precursor of IS's current de facto official media wing, Furat Media. It is unclear if Atajev is involved with Furat Media, which is run by an ethnic Karachai and Russian national nicknamed Abu Jihad, a.k.a. Islam Seit-Umarovich Atabiyev, who was recently blacklisted by the United States as a "specially designated national." 

German Recruitment Fears

Reports have suggested that Germany is concerned about the radicalization of members of its Chechen and other North Caucasian diasporas, some of whom have gone to Syria to fight alongside IS

There is evidence from social media that a number of German militants of North Caucasian origin have been recruited to IS.

One militant, known as Adam al-Almany, is an ethnic Chechen from Germany who was active on social media until a few months ago. Almany was one of a number of Russian-speaking militants who fought alongside IS in Kobani.

In recent weeks, Germany's domestic security agency, the Federal Service for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), warned that radical Islamist groups were trying to recruit newly arrived refugees in hostels.

BfV head Hans-Georg Maassen told the Rheinische Post newspaper last month that radical Salafist groups were posing as charities and volunteers in order to recruit vulnerable refugees in Germany. 


Islamic State, Al-Nusra Front Call For 'Jihad' Against Russia

"Russia will be defeated," said IS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani.

Joanna Paraszczuk

Both the Islamic State (IS) group and Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front, this week called for attacks against Russia, as Russian air strikes in Syria continue -- though not against IS targets.

IS broke two weeks of silence on the Russian air strikes in Syria on October 13 with an audio message calling for "jihad" against both Russia and the United States.

The 40-minute long speech by IS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani calls on "Islamic youth everywhere" to "ignite jihad" -- holy war -- against "the Russians and the Americans." 

"Russia will be defeated," Adnani said.

Adnani's message appears to be the first official announcement from IS that refers to Russia since the Russian air campaign began on September 30.

Even IS's de facto official Russian-language propaganda outlet, Furat Media, has kept quiet about the Russian air campaign, although individual Russian-speaking IS militants have spoken out on social media, mostly to warn Russia against a "second Afghanistan."

IS's silence is not particularly surprising, given that Russia's air strikes have largely targeted the extremist group's rivals, including Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al-Nusra Front as well as Western-backed moderate Free Syrian Army rebels.

Indeed, since the Russian strikes began, IS has made advances against Syrian rebels in northern Aleppo Province. On October 14, IS continued to battle the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal rebel group -- which has been bombed by Russian jets -- in rural northern Aleppo and around the towns of Ahras and Tel Jabin. 

IS gains in northern Aleppo could help the group threaten or cut off rebel supply lines leading into the city, a fear that comes amid reports that the Syrian Army, Hezbollah, and Iranian forces are preparing for a ground offensive against rebels in the Aleppo area. 

Russian-language social-media accounts linked to the Al-Nusra Front have criticized IS for attacking rebel groups at the same time that Russia is raiding them.

"When the Americans bombed IS, Nusra did not attack and defended itself from IS, and now IS is using the Russian strikes against Muslims to attack the mujahedin," the JMA Sham account run by North Caucasian Nusra militants, wrote on Facebook on October 11. (The account has since been deleted for violating Facebook's terms of service.)

So why did IS make its call for "jihad" against Russia at all, and why now?

Is is no coincidence that Adnani made his threats against Russia a day after his rival, leader of the Al-Nusra Front Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, called on militants in Russia's restive North Caucasus to attack Russian civilians and soldiers in response to Moscow's air strikes. 

"If the Russian Army kills the people of Syria, then kill their people. And if they kill our soldiers, then kill their soldiers. An eye for an eye," Jolani said.

Fear Of Attacks?

There has not been an attack in Moscow since January 2011, when a suicide bomber killed 37 people in the Domodedovo International Airport's international arrivals terminal.

But Russian authorities said on October 12 they had foiled a major terrorist attack in the capital, with the Federal Security Service (FSB) claiming that some of those involved -- all Russian citizens -- had "been through combat training in IS camps in Syria."

The Russian media reported on October 13 that a Moscow court had remanded three suspects -- Mokhmad Mezhidov, Elman Ashaev, and Aslan Baysultanov -- in custody until December. 

The ultimate goal of the planned attacks was to make the Russian government "end the participation of its armed forces in operations against IS in Syria," the investigators were quoted as saying.

The reports also said the suspected organizer of the attack was a militant from Kabardino-Balkaria whom police have sought for over a decade -- suggesting that this individual is unlikely to have been in Syria. Such a militant would presumably have been on an FSB wanted list, meaning that if he had fought or trained in Syria, he would have found it extremely difficult to return to Russia without alerting the FSB.

One of the three suspects, Baysultanov, had also been in Syria before plotting the attack, according to the FSB.

However, the FSB did not say that Baysultanov had fought alongside IS in Syria.


How Babur The Migrant Worker Became Jafar The Weeping Suicide Bomber

Perhaps in response to the video showing him crying shortly before he blew himself up, the Imam Bukhari Jamaat released another video which showed footage of Babur Israilov smiling and laughing.

Joanna Paraszczuk

A suicide bomber whose last moments were filmed in a disturbing propaganda video last month has been identified as Babur Israilov, a 21-year-old citizen of Kyrgyzstan.

Israilov appeared in a video published on September 18 by an Uzbek-led militant group, the Imam Bukhari Jamaat, which is loyal to the Afghan Taliban. 

The young ethnic Uzbek, whose nom de guerre was Jafar al-Tayyar, was filmed weeping as a group of militants helped him climb into an explosives-packed armored personnel carrier. 

A few minutes later, the young man killed himself as he detonated his vehicle near the Shi'ite town of Fua in Syria's Idlib Province. Israilov had been deployed as part of a major assault on Syrian government forces by Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front.

Israilov's identity came to light when his relative, Khamidullo Botirov, who lives in the Suzak district in Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad Province, saw the video on a cell phone. Botirov says he recognized the young man as his nephew and contacted the intelligence services.

The Teenager Who Went To Russia

Israilov was born in southern Kyrgyzstan in 1994. 

His uncle, Botirov, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that Israilov's parents divorced when he was an infant. Israilov never knew his father, Takhir Rakhitov, who moved out of the family home after the divorce and later remarried.

In 1995, when Israilov was 18 months old, his mother -- Botirov's older sister -- died suddenly.

Israilov went to live with his uncle. But in November 2013, aged 19, he left Kyrgyzstan and went to live and work in Russia as a labor migrant.

It was there, it seems, that the young man became radicalized and recruited by the pro-Taliban extremist group he joined in Syria.

Israilov was filmed weeping as he climbed into his explosives-laden APC in a previous video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat.
Israilov was filmed weeping as he climbed into his explosives-laden APC in a previous video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat.

"I was against his going to Russia, but he didn't listen to me," Botirov told RFE/RL. "I was afraid that he would get into bad company."

During the first few months Israilov was in Moscow, Botirov says he spoke to his nephew by telephone a couple of times. Israilov even sent money home.

But then, the young man changed his name from Babur to Abdullah, his uncle recalls. And by spring of 2014, Israilov had disappeared.

"After March, he was gone. I thought that maybe things weren't working out for him or he'd fallen into someone's clutches," Botirov says.

Botirov is left wondering why his nephew's life ended as it did. He believes that maybe he had been too strict with Israilov.

"I never thought something like that could happen to him," Botirov said. "I'm so, so sorry."

Israilov's father also recognized his son in the video.

Rakhitov said that although he played no part in his son's upbringing, he never stopped caring about him.

"If I'd have brought him up myself, this would probably never have happened," Rakhitov said. "I want to say to other parents: Watch your children. Don't let them go down the wrong path."

Not Just IS

It would be significant if Israilov was, in fact, recruited in Russia to fight for the Taliban-aligned Imam Bukhari Jamaat in Syria. 

Another image of a smiling Babur Israilov from a video released by the Imam Bukhari JamaatAnother image of a smiling Babur Israilov from a video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat
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Another image of a smiling Babur Israilov from a video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat
Another image of a smiling Babur Israilov from a video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat

It would show that it is not just the Islamic State (IS) group that is involved with recruitment and radicalization among Central Asian labor migrants in Russia.

Israilov's recruitment raises the question of whether other militant groups led by or involving groups of Central Asians in Syria are also actively recruiting among labor migrants in Russia.

According to the Kyrgyz security forces, 84 Kyrgyz nationals from Israilov's native Jalal-Abad Province are in Syria, including four minors. Fourteen people from the province have been killed in fighting.

The Weeping Suicide Bomber

RFE/RL's story of the Uzbek-speaking suicide bomber who was filmed weeping in the final moments of his life has raised questions about how the Imam Bukhari Jamaat persuaded him to blow himself up in Syria.

The story prompted Uzbek-language discussions on the Internet about why the young man was crying. Had he been coerced? Brainwashed?

Apparently in response to the discussions, the Imam Bukhari Jamaat released another video on September 28 which showed footage of Israilov smiling and laughing.

The group's leader, Salahuddin al-Uzbeki, a veteran militant with links to the Taliban, is also seen praising Israilov.

"While there are brave ones like this among the ummah [global community of Muslims], Allah will never let them be devoured by the infidels."


How Did Islamic State Persuade A Jordanian Medical Student In Kharkiv To Blow Himself Up In Iraq?

Mohammad Dalaeen

Volodymyr Noskov

KHARKIV, Ukraine -- "[The Islamic State militant group] just played with him, they used him, because he was young," says Mohammad, a Jordanian medical student at Kharkiv University.

Mohammad is talking about a fellow student, 23-year-old Mohammad Dalaeen, who blew himself up two weeks ago in a suicide attack in Iraq, killing around 30 people.

He and other friends say IS recruiters in Kharkiv merely took advantage of Dalaeen.

But how did the recruiters persuade this privileged young man to drop out of his studies and travel to Iraq to kill himself and others? What transformed Mohammad Dalaeen the medical student into Abu al-Bara al-Urdani the suicide bomber?

On the face of it, Dalaeen seems an unlikely IS recruit. A happily married aspiring doctor, he was the scion of a wealthy and well-respected Jordanian family: His father, Mazen Dalaeen, is a Jordanian lawmaker.

But perhaps the strangest and most shocking part of Dalaeen's story are claims that he was radicalized via his Ukrainian wife, a recent convert to Islam whom IS recruiters targeted at the kindergarten where she took her small son.

University Dropout

When IS recruited him this summer, Dalaeen had lived in Kharkiv for three years.

One of a large community of 1,500 Jordanian students, Dalaeen was due in October to start his second year as a medical student at Kharkiv University.

He was an average student who made C's, according to Tatyana Sevastyanova, the deputy dean of the medical school.

Then, in the summer, he suddenly dropped out.

Sevastyanova told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Radio Svoboda, that the last time Dalaeen showed up at the university was in June. 

The Road To Radicalization

The university told RFE/RL that they had not noticed any changes in Dalaeen's emotional state or in his behavior.

But others who knew him better said he had suddenly become more religious.

Raqi Rawashdeh, the president of Kharkiv's Jordanian community, comes from the same village as the Dalaeens. "Everyone knows [Dalaeen's] father. Everyone respects his family," Rawashdeh says.

Rawashdeh said he became concerned about Dalaeen's religious convictions some months earlier. And after Dalaeen's father became worried about his son, Rawashdeh offered to have a heart-to-heart with the young man.

"It was hard for his father to talk to Mohammad. I'm a bit younger than his dad, so I tried to get through to him by talking on the phone and in coffee shops," Rawashdeh recalls. "I asked him and he said, 'Yeah, everything is OK.'"

Rawashdeh tried to talk Dalaeen out of joining IS. "I asked him, where are you going, what for, tell me? Why are you going to fight? You're still young. They can do without you in Syria," Rawashdeh recalls.

But Dalaeen was "isolated [and] turned inward," Rawashdeh adds.

Dalaeen's father, Mazen, last saw his son in Kharkiv in June. He says Dalaeen seemed to listen to him, shaving off his beard and promising to give up his idea of traveling to Syria.

Mazen's hope was short-lived. A few months later, Dalaeen blew himself up in Iraq.

Recruiting In A Kindergarten?

Mazen says his son was recruited in Kharkiv and that IS recruiters there reached Dalaeen through his Ukrainian wife, Maria, who had converted to Islam.

Dalaeen was married to Maria for two years. Those who knew them said Dalaeen loved his wife and that he had helped raise Maria's son from her first marriage.

It was Maria who first became interested in "jihad," Mazen tells RFE/RL via telephone from Jordan, further claiming that "the recruiters managed to convince [Maria] to adopt radical Islam." 

"It was she who influenced his radicalization," he says.

Some of those who knew Dalaeen think Maria met those who radicalized her at the kindergarten where she took her son.

After her conversion to Islam, Maria began espousing radical views, Rawashdeh says. "[Maria] told him, 'You have to go there to fight. Why are we sitting here when we can go there and act?'" Rawashdeh tells RFE/RL.

Maria traveled to Iraq with Dalaeen and is thought to be there still. She may not even know her husband blew himself up, Dalaeen's father says.

A reporter from the Russian-language news website Komsomolskaya Pravda met with a woman claiming to be Maria's mother who said she started to search for her daughter a month ago via Interpol but then stopped. 

Ukrainian Failures?

When he noticed his son's behavior had changed, Mazen appealed to the Ukrainian authorities.

He even handed over the names and other details of those he thinks were his son's recruiters -- he believes two Azerbaijanis were among those involved -- but has not had any answer.

"I call on the Ukrainian authorities to arrest the scoundrels who recruit students, especially those who are far from their families," Mazen says.

Volodymyr Noskov is a correspondent in Kharkiv for RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

Camel Breeding, Melon Harvesting, Stonemasonry: How IS Sells Its 'Utopia'

Islamic State has used idyllic images of camel-rearing efforts in Syria to help project an image of normalcy in the territory it controls. (file photo)

Joanna Paraszczuk

What do camel-breeding, melon harvesting, and stonemasonry have in common? They all featured in the extremist group Islamic State's propaganda this summer.

While the world may be more used to seeing distressing images of the ultraviolence perpetrated by Islamic State (IS) militants -- beheadings, stonings, mass shootings -- over half of IS propaganda released in July and August documents civilian life, a new report has revealed.

The report, Documenting the Virtual 'Caliphate', was released on October 6 by the British-based antiextremism think tank Quilliam. It surveys a mind-boggling 1,146 pieces of propaganda, including videos, photo essays, audio statements, and even "nasheeds" (a capella songs), issued by IS between July 17 and August 15.

The report's biggest revelation is the extent to which IS uses images of everyday life in its "caliphate" -- the name IS gives to the areas under its control -- to attract supporters.

While IS propaganda still includes extreme violence, the report found that the target audiences for such messaging are more regional than they were in the past.

And although IS also focuses heavily on its military, it mostly depicts itself fighting in offensive rather than defensive actions.

Selling 'Utopia'

Projecting the idea that it is a legitimate state that is able to govern the lands under its control according to Shari'a law has been central to IS's propaganda messages since it declared itself a "caliphate" in June of last year.

So while IS's photo essays showing camel-breeding efforts in Syria's Raqqa province and tours of a stonemasonry workshop in Sirte in Libya may seem odd choices for propaganda, it is precisely through these images that the extremist group seeks to demonstrate its ability to govern.

After all, the Quilliam report says, "most of the current challenges to [IS] propaganda are limited to questions of its legitimacy and the credibility of its claims."

Some of the "utopian events" featured in IS propaganda, like stores and markets packed with goods, are aimed at informing both supporters and critics that life is good under IS rule.

"To those millions who have spent years living under lawlessness and corruption, promises of economic sufficiency are powerful indeed," the report says.

Other images, such as those of children playing together, depict life in the "caliphate" as joyful.

"Fundamentally, [IS] is showing that it can be a real, practicable alternative to the status quo," the report says.

"The emphasis on governance enables it to maintain an aura of absolute defiance in the face of the anti-IS coalition and persuasively argue that it is the only feasible option for Sunnis."

The Rule Of (Shari'a) Law

Images of IS militants carrying out brutal punishments -- throwing homosexual men from tall buildings, beheading and shooting enemies -- have become sickeningly familiar.

But there is a reason why IS produces so much "justice-themed" propaganda of "hadd" punishments -- IS's interpretation of penalties fixed in the Koran for six "crimes" including drinking alcohol and apostasy.

The report documented 41 instances of "justice-themed" propaganda messages.

To local people, these messages convey the idea that IS-controlled lands are a "caliphate of law" where civil crimes are punished "swiftly and unwaveringly," the report notes.

Propaganda concerning religious "crimes" like homosexuality and adultery is intended to appeal to ideological supporters.

The graphic, brutal punishments have the added bonus of upsetting and enraging the international community, the report points out.

Wild Camels?

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of IS propaganda revealed by the report are the 31 photo essays that depict nature.

These include landscapes featuring wild camels, dust storms, and wild birds.

Why does IS bother to include such tourist-brochure imagery in its propaganda arsenal?

The group wants to romanticize life in the "caliphate," the report explains.

"It drives home the fact that supporters of the group are not all bloodthirsty maniacs."

Social Change?

The report's findings that Islamic State is seeking to attract support predominantly by telling stories about "utopian" civilian life supports earlier findings about why individuals move to IS-controlled areas.

While IS recruits militants to fight on the battlefield, not all of those who travel to live in IS-controlled lands are fighters.

Some are seeking the sort of utopia that IS promises them.

A January report by the International Crisis Group found that IS's appeal in Central Asia, for example, was "rooted in an unfulfilled desire for political and social change."

Some Central Asian women who traveled to IS territory were prompted by the "call of a devout life or an Islamic environment for their children."

Countering Propaganda

So how to counter such an overwhelming flood of IS propaganda?

The Quilliam report emphasizes that no single counternarrative can undercut IS's complex propaganda efforts.

Instead, what is needed is a "progressive and energetic set of counter-propaganda campaigns" from both governments and non-state actors, Quilliam says.

But first, it is necessary to better understand IS's propaganda machine.

"In many respects, IS is operating like a media company," Quilliam's managing director, Haras Rafik, said.

"The IS 'caliphate' is marketing itself on an industrial scale. If we are to destroy its brand, we must first be able to fathom its depths."


Jordanian IS Suicide Bomber Said Recruited In Ukraine

By a chilling coincidence, the young medical student-turned-suicide bomber hailed from Al-Karak, a province southwest of the Jordanian capital, Amman, that was also the home of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh (pictured,in photograph), who was burned alive by IS militants in February.

Joanna Paraszczuk

A Jordanian lawmaker's son who joined the Islamic State (IS) militant group and blew himself up in Iraq was recruited while at medical school in Ukraine, his relatives have said.

Posts on pro-IS social-media accounts said late last week that Mohammad Dalaeen, 23, had killed himself in a suicide attack against Iraqi forces in Al-Jaraishi, an area north of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province. 

Reports soon emerged that Mohammad Dalaeen -- who went by the nom de guerre Abu al-Bara al-Urdani ("the Jordanian") -- was the son of Jordanian lawmaker Mazen Dalaeen.

By a chilling coincidence, the young medical student-turned-suicide bomber hailed from Al-Karak, a province southwest of the Jordanian capital, Amman, that was also the home of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh, who was burned alive by IS militants in February. 

Dalaeen was even from the same tribe as Kasasbeh, according to Al-Jazeera, who spoke to Dalaeen's father. 

From Medical Student To Suicide Bomber

Mohammad Dalaeen had been studying medicine in Kharkiv, a large city in eastern Ukraine, before he joined IS.

A promising student, Dalaeen suddenly dropped out during his third year of school and went to Turkey with his Ukrainian wife in June of this year, intending to travel on to Iraq to join IS, Dalaeen's father told Al-Jazeera.

Dalaeen's father said that his son had been radicalized and recruited in Kharkiv by an Azerbaijani couple, known as Ibrahim and Sumayah, who live in Kharkiv.

A relative of the Dalaeen family told The Jordan Times on October 3 that Dalaeen's Ukrainian wife was a religious Muslim who had worn a full face veil. 

The relative said Dalaeen's father had traveled to Ukraine in mid-June to see his son after becoming aware that he had begun to express extreme religious views. But he was unable to find Dalaeen, who had already left for Turkey with his wife.

Dalaeen last contacted his family on August 20, when he sent his mother a message explaining that he was in Mosul and getting ready to carry out a suicide attack, the relative said.

Prior to that, Dalaeen's father had tried three times to bring his son back to Jordan, but the young man refused, saying that he had made the right choice by joining IS.

Ukraine is a popular destination for Jordanian students, including medical students. Kharkiv has its own Jordanian community, the president of which, Raqi Rawashdeh, told Al-Jazeera that Dalaeen had become religious only in the last few months.

Around 3,400 Jordanians are enrolled in Ukrainian universities and over 2,900 Jordanian practicing doctors have graduated from schools in Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador to Jordan said in June, around the time that Dalaeen went to join IS in Iraq. 

However, there have been reports of some tensions between the Jordanian community and locals.

In June, around 40 masked assailants seriously injured four Jordanian medical students in an attack, in Kharkiv in June, media reports said.


'IS Will Make Me A Suicide Bomber If You Don't Bring Me Home'

The aftermath of a suicide bomb attack targeting Kurdish security forces in Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh Province in August

Joanna Paraszczuk

A young Tajik woman who voluntarily joined the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria last year claims militants plan to use her as a suicide bomber unless the Tajik authorities bring her home.

It's not clear why Marjona Alanazarova, 27, suddenly decided to travel, apparently alone, to Syria to join IS last month.

But now she is desperate to come home.

A year ago, in September 2014, Alanazarova moved to Moscow from her hometown of Shaartuz in Tajikistan's southwestern Khatlon Province. She took her three small children with her but left her husband, Farrukh, behind.

Farrukh told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that Alanazarova had insisted on going to work in Moscow even though he had not wanted her to do so. He has a jewelry store in Shaartuz and says the family was not short of money.

But Alanazarova went to the Russian capital anyway. She moved in with her aunt and got a job at a sewing company.

There are no details about what happened during Alanazarova's year in Moscow. 

What is known is that at the beginning of September Alanazarova suddenly went to Syria, leaving her three children in the care of her aunt. She did not tell her husband about her decision.

Once in Syria, Alanazarova joined IS. But she very quickly came to regret her decision.

On September 15, about two weeks after she arrived in Syria, the young Tajik woman contacted her husband via the Russian-language social network Odnoklassniki.

Alanazarova begged Farrukh to bring her back to Tajikistan. If she stayed in Syria, she said, militants planned to use her as a suicide bomber.

According to Alanazarova, a young woman who had been with her in Syria had been killed as a result of a suicide attack in Syria.

Now it was her turn, Alanazarova told Farrukh.

The mother of three told Farrukh that she had been promised a good salary if she went to Syria.

Farrukh told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that his wife had been tricked into joining IS.

According to Farrukh, the Tajik authorities have returned Alanazarova's children -- aged 7, 5, and 2 -- from Moscow to their father in Shaartuz. But they have not been able to make any promises about helping bring back Alanazarova from Syria.

Shaartuz prosecutors have interviewed Alanazarova's relatives and gathered information and documents about her case but would not give any details about her location in Syria, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported.

IS Female Suicide Bombers?

Although IS has used children as young as 8 as suicide bombers, so far there have been no signs of women carrying out such attacks for the militant group.

Charlie Winter, of the U.K.-based counterextremism think tank Quilliam, told RFE/RL that IS has not used female suicide bombers.

"Women are encouraged to train in self-defense and in the production of suicide belts. The idea is that if your house is attacked, you can blow yourself up," Winter said.

But women are not used in offensive operations. According to unofficial guidelines issued by a pro-IS media group aimed at women, that would have to be ordered by the group's leader.

It is unlikely based on IS's previous behavior that Alanazarova would be deployed as a suicide bomber.

But if her claim is verified, it would mark a drastic, and worrying, new development for the extremist group.

There have been reports of women who said they were prepared to act as suicide bombers for IS. A 25-year-old Kyrgyz woman arrested in Moscow in July as she planned to join IS in Syria told RFE/RL that she wanted to "blow herself up" in a combat zone.


IS's North Caucasus Affiliate Calls For Recruits To Join It In Daghestan

A screen grab from a video message released by Furat Media, Islamic State's Russian-language media wing, urging would-be militants in Russia to "go out and wage jihad in the Caucasus."

Joanna Paraszczuk

The Islamic State extremist group's North Caucasus affiliate, Wilayat al-Qawqaz (Caucasus Province) has issued a call for would-be militants in Russia to join it and fight against Russian forces rather than joining IS in Syria.

In a video message released last week by Furat Media, IS's official Russian-language media wing, the leader of IS's Caucasus Province in Daghestan, Abu Mukhammad Kadarsky (Rustam Asilderov), said this was the wish of IS's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"We ask that you obey the order of the Caliph (IS leader), the Qadi (religious judge) of the Caliphate (IS's term for the lands under its control), and participate -- I mean the Muslims of the Caucasus, that they [should] go out and wage jihad in the Caucasus," Kadarsky said.

Fight At Home, Not In Syria?

In recent months, IS's Russian contingent has made numerous propaganda efforts to encourage would-be militants from the Russian Federation to join its ranks -- in Syria and Iraq.

These efforts appear to have been successful. Although exact numbers are unknown, the number of Russian-speaking militants fighting alongside IS seems to have expanded over the last year -- though it is likely that the Russian Federal Security Services (FSB) estimate of 2,400 Russian nationals is exaggerated.

But as new recruits entered its ranks, IS's Russian contingent has also seen heavy losses, particularly in Kobani in Syria and in Baiji in Iraq.

So with IS's Russian battalions needing fresh recruits to replace those killed, why has Furat Media published a call from IS's Caucasus Province asking new recruits to join IS and fight in Russia rather than Syria?

The answer is likely that IS's Russian contingent does not see the Caucasus Province's recruitment call as a serious threat to its own recruitment activities.

Despite the propaganda, IS's Caucasus Province is weak and unlikely to attract large numbers of recruits to swell its ranks in the forests of Daghestan, particularly as winter draws near.

The Caucasus Province does not control territory in Russia and its structure has been damaged by extensive counterterrorism operations targeting militant leaders. In August, Russia killed Islam Muradov, the leader of a Daghestan-based militant group who pledged allegiance to IS in December 2014.

Significantly, the Caucasus Province has carried out no major attacks since militants in the North Caucasus first began to pledge allegiance to IS last December.

The one attack IS has claimed to have carried out -- against a Russian military barracks in the Magaramkentsky district of southern Daghestan on September 2 -- was never independently confirmed.

Indeed, local residents denied the attack ever happened, saying there are no military units in the area, only a frontier post.

Boosting IS In Syria

Curiously, the U.S. Treasury Department referred to the alleged Daghestan attack in its announcement on September 29 that it had blacklisted the Caucasus Province as a terror group.

The United States can impose financial sanctions and penalties on blacklisted groups. But this is unlikely to have any material impact on IS's Caucasus Province.

However, the kudos associated with being blacklisted by the United States -- and of being accused of perpetrating a major attack in Russia -- will boost the prestige of IS's Russian contingent.

The blacklisting will especially please Abu Jihad (Islam Seit-Umarovich Atabiev), the IS militant who has spearheaded the message of support for "jihad" in the North Caucasus as a way of projecting power.

An ethnic Karachai from Russia's Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic, Abu Jihad has led an increasingly bitter power struggle between IS's Russian-speaking contingent and its rival, the North Caucasus's home-grown insurgent group the Caucasus Emirate.

'Abu Liar'

But Abu Jihad's efforts to portray himself as a jihadi leader for whom the Islamist struggle in the North Caucasus is a major concern has aroused scorn and anger among militants in Syria who have remained loyal to the Caucasus Emirate.

Militants from Imarat Kavkaz V Shame, the Caucasus Emirate's affiliate in Syria, refer to Abu Jihad as "Abu Jahili" (Abu Ignorant) and "Abu Kazzab" (Abu Liar) and accuse him of stirring up fitna -- sedition -- among Russian-speaking fighters in Syria and in the North Caucasus.

They also say Abu Jihad and IS in general are only pretending to care about jihad in the North Caucasus, in order to advance themselves and attract new recruits.

"If he cares so much about the Caucasus, why doesn't he go fight there himself?" one Aleppo-based North Caucasian militant, who would not give his name, said of Abu Jihad.


Can IS Brides Blow Themselves Up?

Women are allowed to use suicide belts -- assuming of course that they have one on hand -- in cases where they must defend themselves.

Joanna Paraszczuk

Can female Islamic State (IS) militants be suicide bombers?

If so, where can they blow themselves up?

Under what circumstances can "jihadi brides" shoot a sniper rifle? Or a Kalashnikov?

And what sewing skills should a would-be militant wife possess?

All these questions and more are answered in a new treatise issued this week by the Zora Foundation, a pro-IS media group aimed at the wives and would-be wives of IS militants.

The treatise exploring the thorny issue of how and when women can be involved in waging "jihad" was shared on Twitter

"While this document is not an official declaration of Islamic State policy towards the permissibility of women fighting, it is certainly reflective of it," Charlie Winter, a senior researcher at the counterextremism think tank Quilliam, told RFE/RL.

Serving The Mujahedin

The treatise was written in response to a question from a woman in Saudi Arabia who asked a scholar named Sheikh Abu Abdullah al-Mansur whether women are allowed to take part in fighting, and how they should "serve the mujahedin," or jihadi fighters.

A woman ought to support the mujahedin "according to her abilities" -- "treating the sick, sewing, cooking, washing, or any other measures," the treatise advises.

The Zora Foundation treatise (click to enlarge)The Zora Foundation treatise (click to enlarge)
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The Zora Foundation treatise (click to enlarge)
The Zora Foundation treatise (click to enlarge)

On the more complicated issue of women on the battlefield, the treatise explains that female militants are only allowed to fight in a defensive capacity. In other words, women cannot be used suicide bombers in an offensive operation -- except if they are granted permission by their "amir," or commander.

However, women are allowed to use suicide belts -- assuming of course that they have one on hand -- in cases where they must defend themselves.

For example, a female IS militant would be allowed to blow herself up -- or, failing that, use weapons to defend herself -- if her home were raided.

And should a woman happen to be wearing a suicide belt when "Kuffar" (infidels) attacked a hospital or other public place where she is present, she would be permitted to detonate herself there too.

Women, Know Your Limits

According to Winter, the guidelines "unambiguously clarify" the position of IS's female recruits. "Women may not engage in offensive operations unless otherwise designated by the amir; while they are allowed to use guns, and even blow themselves up, this is only permitted in a defensive capacity," Winter said.

Much of the reasoning behind the guidelines seems designed to maintain rigid gender roles and to prevent women from mixing with men.

A woman may, for example, use a sniper rifle -- but only in a "solitary place" and even then only with their commander's permission.

And women are, of course, prohibited from "mixing with the army" because of the "corruption" this would lead to, the guidelines say.

Study Sewing, Nursing, Cooking -- And Weaponry

Women are advised to prepare themselves for "jihad" by studying skills that will help them be useful to male militants, such as nursing, cooking, and sewing.

"Jihadi brides" are also allowed to study weaponry -- as long as they are learning how to use weapons for self-defense, such as "a revolver or a Kalashnikov."

Another useful skill women should master, the guidelines say, is how to make suicide belts and hand grenades.

But all this training must only be carried out in the presence of a "mahram," or chaperone, and in single-sex settings.

"There is no problem with women meeting in order to train with weapons, as long as they are far away from men," the guidelines instruct.

And a woman is allowed to partake in physical exercise as long as she does so in order to "strengthen her body, cure an illness, or in the presence of righteous women."

Of course, women must wear "loose, covering clothes" when exercising and be "far from the eyes of men." To reinforce the point on appropriate clothing, the guidelines point out that women must dress before leaving the house.

Founded in the fall of 2014, the Zora Foundation has previously issued guidelines on how to prepare female IS recruits for jihad, including how to cook and sew for militants, how to use editing programs to help spread IS propaganda, and how to administer first aid. 

The English translation of the Arabic treatise was provided by Charlie Winter of the Quilliam Foundation

Is Russia Really Bombing IS Militants In Syria?

A general view of deserted streets and damaged buildings in the central Syrian town of Talbisah in Homs Province, which was targeted by Russian strikes on September 30.

Joanna Paraszczuk

Moscow officials announced that Russian war planes were conducting "pinpoint strikes" against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria on September 30, and had strong words for skeptics.

But while Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters at the United Nations that it was a distortion of the facts to suggest Russia hit targets other than IS militants, the suggestion lives on among Syrian rebels, activists, and Western officials. 

Russian air strikes were targeting IS "military equipment, communication centers, vehicles, arms depots, ammunition and fuel," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement posted on the Russian Defense Ministry's Facebook page.

According to Syrian state television, several strikes were carried out and hit areas in the Homs and Hama provinces. But the doubts centered on whether the areas in question were actually held by IS militants.

After a U.S. official questioned the location of IS in the targeted areas, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the issue while speaking to a United Nations Security Council meeting chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Kerry said that the United States would welcome Russian participation in the effort to defeat IS militants, if Moscow's actions "reflect a genuine commitment."

But he said Washington "would have grave concerns should Russia should strike areas where ISIL and Al-Qaeda-affiliated targets are not operating."

Earlier, a French diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, suggested that it was not IS that was being targeted, but forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"It is not Daesh [IS] that they are targeting, but probably opposition groups, which confirms that they are more in support of Bashar's regime than in fighting Daesh," the source was quoted as saying.

The areas in northern Homs Province reportedly targeted by the Russian air strikes are controlled by a number of Syrian rebel groups -- including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as well as Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front), and hard-line Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, according to activists, locals, and experts.

"Northern Homs countryside is home to various factions from [those under the] FSA flag to Nusra," says Thomas Pierret, a Syria expert at the University of Edinburgh. "For sure there is no IS there. And overall it is rather moderate."

According to Thomas van Linge, who maps the Syrian conflict, the northern Homs region was one of the first areas to fall into rebel hands. "It's a mix of FSA, Ahrar al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra, and independent groups like Faylaq al-Homs and Jaysh al-Tawhid," Van Linge tells RFE/RL.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a Syrian activist group, claimed on its Facebook page that there was no IS presence in any of the areas reportedly targeted by the Russian air strikes.

"Activists said that there were dozens of civilian victims including women and children," the LCC wrote. 

The LCC also said that the Russian strikes hit five towns -- Zafaraneh, Rastan, Talbisah, Makarmia, and Ghanto -- according to the BBC.

The U.S.-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that the rebel-held town of Talbisah is controlled by the Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, and a number of other local rebel groups. 

"If confirmed, the air strike would signal Russian intent to assist in the Syrian regime's war effort at large, rather than securing the regime's coastal heartland of Latakia and Tartus," ISW wrote.

There was some confusion over who carried out some of the strikes in Homs. Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on September 30 that Syrian government forces had hit Zafaraneh, Rastan, and Talbisah, killing at least 27 civilians. 

A U.S.-backed rebel group, Tajamu al-Ezzah, claimed on Twitter that it had been targeted in the Russian air strikes.

"It seems that the elimination of terrorism begins with the bombardment of the headquarters of Tajamu al-Ezzah and the city of Al-Latamna," the group tweeted, referring to a city in Hama Province.

Tajamu al-Ezzah has claimed to have U.S.-supplied TOW missiles, according to AP. 


How Three Brothers Went To Syria, Taking Their Families With Them

Sharif Shirinbekov from southern Tajikistan says all of his sons have been duped into going to Syria.

"How many times did I say, 'Don't do it'? I said, 'Your mother is crying, you have a young wife, a daughter. Why go there?'"

Sharif Shirbekov, a 60-year-old grandfather from Tajikistan, is recalling one of the last conversations he had with his youngest son, Rakhmatullo, before the 20-year-old took off for Syria.

Alas, Shirbekov told RFE/RL's Tajik Service this week, Rakhmatullo refused to listen.

"He said, 'I was called by the brothers, I'm going there'," Shirbekov remembers.

Rakhmatullo was the youngest of three of Shirbekov's sons who went to Syria. Over the past six months, eight members of Shirbekov's family -- three sons, four grandchildren, and a daughter-in-law -- have gone to the war-torn country.

Shirbekov, who lives in the Qabodiyon district in southwestern Tajikistan, has not heard from his sons lately. With them gone, money is tight. He works as a driver and says it's hard to make ends meet now. And, as if things were not bad enough, his wife has fallen ill since her three boys went to Syria, and has had to see a doctor.

Labor Migrants

Why did the brothers go to Syria? And why did they take their families with them?

Shirbekov says that all three young men had first gone to Russia as labor migrants.

None of the brothers have a higher education, and none of them served in the military, Shirbekov told RFE/RL.

In Russia, they worked on building sites or swept the streets. And they were also radicalized there.

Shirbekov complains that it was labor migrants from Uzbekistan who duped his sons into going to Syria. He comes from an Uzbek-speaking family and says that maybe that's why his sons became involved with a group from the Uzbek cities of Namangan and Andijon.

The eldest of the three, 30-year-old Umar, was the first brother to go to Russia and then to Syria, Shirbekov says. He first went to Moscow 15 years ago, and lived in a rental apartment with the Uzbek labor migrants. It was there that Umar learned to pray, according to his father. Then, at the start of 2014, Umar "did a foolish thing" and went to Syria.

Umar offered his own explanation for his actions. He telephoned his father and explained his assessment of the global situation: "The whole world is a fraud, we have to create a single Islamic state where all the world's Muslims can gather."

Two months later, the middle brother, 25-year-old Abubakr, joined Umar in Syria.

And four months after that, Rakhmatullo went to Syria too.

The Shirbekovs say that, since then, they have had no news from their three sons or their other family members.

But they still hope that Umar, Abubakr, and Rakhmatullo will come home.

Bring The Family

In some cases in Central Asia, men who go to fight in Syria -- often after first traveling to Russia for work -- leave their wives and children behind.

But sometimes families travel together. And the Shirbekov brothers are not the only Tajik nationals to have taken their wives with them to Syria.

Some 10 people from the Qabodiyon district have gone to Syria, several of them with their families, the local authorities told RFE/RL.

Reports suggest that conditions in Syria can be dangerous or even deadly for the families of Central Asian militants.

In May, the mother of Gulru Olimova, a 25-year-old Tajik woman who went to Syria with her husband, told RFE/RL that Islamic State militant group had prevented her daughter from taking her three children home to Tajikistan after her husband was killed in fighting.

There is also ample evidence that militant groups in Syria recruit the children of Central Asian militants -- including ethnic Uzbeks like the Shirbekov brothers -- to fight on the battlefield. 

The Uzbek-led Imam Bukhari Jamaat, which has pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, has admitted that it recruits Uzbek children and teenagers, including the sons of its militants, as fighters.


Al-Qaeda's Affiliate In Syria Tries Crowdfunding

The militant known as Abu Rofik (or Rafik) Abdul Mukaddim Tatarstani has made two fund-raising appeals this week via his Nusra propaganda page on the Russian social-networking site VKontakte.

Joanna Paraszczuk

A militant who fights alongside Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, has called for donations to help the group purchase equipment, offering a glimpse into the group's architecture and its fund-raising. 

The militant, who goes under the nom de guerre Abu Rofik (or Rafik) Abdul Mukaddim Tatarstani, made two fund-raising appeals this week via his Nusra propaganda page on the Russian social-networking site VKontakte.

In the first post, on September 20, Abu Rofik appealed to "sincere brothers and sisters who always support us" to contact him if they wanted to donate.

The funds were needed to "buy equipment and help brothers [militants] who are in need," Abu Rofik said.

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"Do not be stingy and be zealous in the way of Allah," the appeal added.

The second appeal, made on September 24, said funds were needed to "help several brothers who are in need and buy several items of equipment for that purpose."

Abu Rofik called on would-be supporters to contact him privately for details of how to donate.

Why Is Nusra Asking For Money?

Abu Rofik's fund-raising appeals shed some light on how at least some of the activities of the foreign-fighter faction to which he belongs are financed.

They also offer some insights into the structure of Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front).

Abu Rofik fights alongside a group named Katiba Sayfullah, an Uzbek-led foreign fighter battalion within the Al-Nusra Front.

Katiba Sayfulla started out as a predominantly North Caucasian independent battalion named Jaish Khilafatul Islamiya. Its original leader, Sayfullakh al-Shishani (Ruslan Machalikashvili), pledged allegiance to Nusra leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani in December 2013, a couple of months before he was killed. Currently, the group consists of a number of Russian-speaking militants including some from the North Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as fighters from other parts of the world.

Katiba Sayfullah is based in Haritan, a town to the north of Aleppo city.

Abu Rofik operates as a trainer for the group and has posted various photographs of himself conducting training sessions, often in rifle or sniper shooting:

He has made numerous similar fund-raising appeals via VKontakte in the past in which he has asked supporters to give money to buy various items of military equipment for his training sessions and for the militants in his group.

His activities suggest that Nusra militants must find at least some of their own funds to equip themselves.

Previously, Abu Rofik has asked for donations via the Qiwi Koshelek payment system, a service that Russian-speaking militants in the Islamic State group have also used. 

Who Is Abu Rofik?

Abu Rofik is a Russian-speaking militant who has claimed to be from the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. However, in an interview with the intermittently operational Turkish Nusra semiofficial propaganda website Ummet Islam in May 2014, he was described as an Uzbek.

Although he is prolific on social media and frequently posts photographs of himself, Abu Rofik has shied away from revealing his identity and always appears with the lower half of his face covered with a mask.

The 2014 Ummet Islam interview said Abu Rofik was in his 20s and had worked as a "computer expert" in Russia before coming to Syria.

Abu Rofik has said that while he is working for Nusra, he has not formally pledged allegiance to the group's leader.

In an old and now deleted account on VKontakte in which he went under the pseudonym Muslim Abdullaev, Abu Rofik bragged that he had served as a sniper with Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), Russia's largest foreign-intelligence agency -- a claim that is highly unlikely to be true. 

Abu Rofik has been in Syria for two years, according to his social-media posts.

In a post on his VKontakte page on September 8, he shared a photograph of a small child that he claimed was his son.

"How he has grown in two years. What a shame that I won't see him again. We will meet in paradise, inshallah (God willing)," Abu Rofik wrote.


Mosul's Vigilante Brigades Risk It All To Take On IS

Civilians in Mosul say they support the armed groups that kill Islamic State (IS) militants. "The city is suffering because of IS."

Joanna Paraszczuk and RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq

Their identities are secret. They work after sundown, preferring deserted areas of the city. No one knows where they will strike next. They target different neighborhoods each time.

Their mission is simple: to kill Islamic State (IS) militants.

Their targets never vary, but their methods do. Sometimes they use snipers to take out a militant. Sometimes they plant roadside bombs and blow up cars. Sometimes they stab their victims, sometimes strangle them.

They are Mosul's vigilante brigades, shadowy groups of civilians-turned-armed-assassins who risk their own lives to kill IS gunmen -- as well as those who support them.

IS has done its best to eliminate these assassins, tracking down and killing as many of them as it can. But local people in Mosul say these anonymous resistance fighters have had an impact, that IS has covered up the killings and changed how its gunmen operate in Mosul.

Hiding Behind Beards

"Do you know why IS ordered all men [in Mosul] to grow their beards?" the young man asks with a laugh. "It's because they don't want to be recognized."

The young man says he is part of an anti-IS group called the Brigades of Mosul that assassinates IS militants. He tells RFE/RL's correspondent in Mosul that his group has taken out IS gunmen using sniper rifles. Since then, the militants have tried to disguise themselves so they blend in with the public, the young man claims.

The young man, who refuses to give his name, says he and his friends have also planted bombs in Mosul to target IS vehicles. Because of the attacks, IS militants now drive unmarked cars so they are not so visible, he claims.

Resistance Is Not Futile?

Armed anti-IS groups are not a new phenomenon in Mosul, according to RFE/RL's correspondent in the Iraqi city.

They sprang up almost as soon as the militants overran the city last summer. Their names -- the Brigades of Mosul, the Revenge of Nineveh, the Lions of Nineveh, the Brigades for the Liberation of Mosul -- are testament to their members' pride and intense desire to retaliate against IS.

Some of the groups are no longer operating. In some cases, IS tracked down and killed their fighters. Some say they had to disband when they got no support from the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

But neither IS nor a lack of resources has been able to stamp out resistance in Mosul, according to testimony from local residents, who say that armed vigilante groups are causing problems for the militants.

Covering Up

IS tries to cover up the assassinations of its gunmen, witnesses in Mosul say, a sign that the militant group is embarrassed by the killings.

A worker in one of Mosul's morgues tells RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that he receives IS corpses from time to time, though he will not give a precise number.

"IS don't talk a lot about these dead bodies," the morgue worker says. "But if the group has to give some kind of explanation, they say the gunmen were killed in combat or in coalition air strikes."

But the corpses do not show injuries consistent with IS's explanations of their deaths.

They were shot with Kalashnikovs or guns with silencers, or they were strangled or stabbed to death, the morgue worker says.

IS tries to keep the deaths a secret, he adds. The militants only operate under cover of darkness. They bring the bodies to the mortuary and return them to their families only at night.

Hitting Back At Shadows

Mosul residents tell RFE/RL that IS is trying to crush the armed resistance. As usual, the main weapons IS uses to try to force compliance are fear and brutality.

According to the Mosul morgue worker, when an IS militant is assassinated, IS gunmen arrest former security personnel and execute them in public to terrify others. The victims are accused of spying and cooperating with the Iraqi forces.

"[IS] goes crazy when one of theirs is killed," the morgue worker says.

Killing Collaborators

Groups like the Brigades of Mosul do not only target IS militants. They say they also kill those who collaborate with and support them.

The young man from the Brigades of Mosul vows to take revenge on Mosul residents who support IS, including those he says stole and destroyed property in private homes and public buildings.

He and his friends have already killed five local residents, the young man claims. "We did it because they deserve it. They are supporting IS," he says. "Those people betrayed their own city."

'We Are Ready To Fight IS'

Civilians in Mosul say they support the armed groups that kill IS militants.

"Every so often we hear about the killing of one or two IS guys," says Ahmad Ghanim, a Mosul resident whose name has been changed for security reasons. "Most of the people of Nineveh encourage and support such operations. I'm one of them."

It's not true that people in Mosul support IS, Ghanim adds. "Me, most of the men, even women and children are ready to fight IS and support the army or any Iraqi forces or joint forces who came to liberate Mosul," he tells RFE/RL. "The city is suffering because of IS."

A female resident of Mosul, who identifies herself only as M.M., tells RFE/RL that she is ready to take up arms against IS herself.

Failing that, M.M. says she is prepared to help resistance efforts by caring for injured resistance fighters or smuggling weapons on her person.

"It's time to get out and fight these extremists," says M.M., who says she doesn't understand the "global silence" about what is happening in Mosul.

Note: All of the people who spoke to RFE/RL are living in Mosul.


The Last Moments Of A Suicide Bomber In Syria

This young Uzbek militant -- named as Jafar al-Tayyar -- detonated an explosives-packed armored infantry fighting vehicle near or in Fua on September 18.

Joanna Paraszczuk and Barno Anvar

An Uzbek militant has carried out a suicide truck bombing in the predominantly Shi'ite town of Fua in Idlib Province, part of a major attack against Bashar al-Assad's Syrian forces by Islamist factions led by Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front.

One of a wave of bombers, the Uzbek detonated an explosives-packed armored infantry fighting vehicle near or in Fua on September 18.

The Uzbek was fighting alongside the Imam Bukhari Jamaat, an Uzbek-led faction that pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban last year.

'First Volunteer From Mawarannahr'

The Uzbek suicide bomber's last moments are recorded in a chilling video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat on September 20.

A young man, apparently in his early 20s and with just a few wisps of beard, the bomber is named as Jafar al-Tayyar. (The video initially appeared on YouTube but has since been removed as in violation of the site's terms of service.)

The video's narrator lauds him as the "first volunteer mujahid (jihad fighter) of Mawarannahr," a term used by some jihadists to refer to an area corresponding to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgyzstan, and parts of southwestern Kazakhstan.

Jafar is shown surrounded by militants who encourage him to climb into his explosives-packed vehicle.

But the Uzbek bomber does not seem calm or pleased in what are the last few minutes of his life.

He is frightened, and at one point he breaks down in tears:

An Uzbek-speaking militant warns the young man that "shaytan," the devil, is going to try to frighten him.

"Jafar, my brother, don't be afraid. When you are scared, remember Allah," the militant says.

Jafar says that he is not afraid of the devil.

"I'm just scared I won't succeed," he tells his fellow militants, before they send him off to die.

But Jafar did succeed in blowing himself up. The video later shows footage of a powerful explosion.

It is unclear how many people Jafar managed to kill or injure in his attack.

The Imam Bukhari Jamaat has been involved in the fighting around Fua for some weeks.

A graphic video released by the Imam Bukhari Jamaat on September 7 showed footage of dead Shi'ite fighters.

The Uzbek group claimed to have killed dozens of Shi'ite militiamen in Fua and gloated over the dead Shi'ite fighters, though it did not say if any civilians had died. 

Foreign Fighters In Fua, Kafriyeh

The suicide operation illustrates how Syrian jihadist groups like Nusra use foreign militants to carry out suicide bombings and as frontline fighters in offensives against Syrian government forces.

The Imam Bukhari Jamaat is fighting as part of the Jaish al-Fateh, or Army of Conquest, coalition.

It includes the powerful Syrian jihadist factions Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, two of the largest groups fighting against Syrian President Assad's forces.

Foreign Islamist groups liked Imam Bukhari have played an important role in the Army of Conquest's siege on Fua, as well as in previous offensives in Idlib Province.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Turkestan Islamic Party is also involved in the fighting at Fua.

So, too, is Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, a formerly Chechen-led group that is now headed by a Saudi militant and contains a diminishing number of North Caucasus fighters. Unconfirmed rumors from militants in Syria say the group is about to formally join Nusra.

In addition to Imam Bukhari Jamaat, there is a second Uzbek group, Tavhid wal-Jihod (TWJ), involved in fighting at Fua. TWJ is an independent group that has fought many times alongside the Nusra Front in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

A TWJ video released on September 19 shows a contingent of Uzbek militants storming Fua.

It also contains footage of an ethnic Uzbek militant who claims to have exploded a remote-controlled vehicle bomb and returned alive, although he appears extremely shaken. The militant crouches on the floor, apparently in shock, as other Uzbek fighters crowd around him and cheer.

One TWJ militant later vows that the group will continue fighting and advance "to Damascus and then Palestine." 

The Army of Conquest overran large areas of Idlib Province earlier this year.

The two Shi'ite villages of Fua and Kafriyeh are the Syrian government's last two remaining outposts in Idlib Province.

They have been blockaded by Army of Conquest militants for months. The siege is linked to the government bombardment of the town of Zabadani near Syria's border with Lebanon.

A cease-fire and de-escalation agreement between Iran and the Army of Conquest was reportedly reached on September 20 and stipulated an end to the blockade of Fua and Kafraya.


Happy In IS-Held Raqqa? No Way, Say Syrian Activists

An IS militant (left) stands next to residents as they hold pieces of wreckage from a Syrian war plane after it crashed in Raqqa. (file photo)

Joanna Paraszczuk

Syrian activists have sharply criticized a new opinion poll that found most people in the city of Raqqa, which is controlled by the extremist group Islamic State, believe that IS has had a positive influence on the country.

The poll was commissioned by the BBC from market research firm ORB International and examined public opinion in Iraq and Syria.

It asked 1,365 people across Syria's 14 provinces about various issues, including whether they thought IS had a positive or a negative influence on the country.

While most Syrians said IS had a somewhat negative or completely negative influence, a majority -- some 70 percent -- of the 53 people polled in IS-controlled Raqqa said IS had a somewhat positive or a completely positive influence on events in Syria.

Johnny Heald of ORB International told the BBC that before polling in IS-controlled areas, his team visited the head of the town and asked his permission to randomly interview people.

Heald told the BBC that IS agreed to the poll because "as the data verifies, many of those living in Raqqa now are happier since IS took over."

"They welcome the security, they see IS trying to help the people with electricity, with food, with petrol. In many respects it is a story they are keen to tell," Heald added.

But Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, an activist with Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a group that documents IS's abuses, reacted angrily to the BBC poll and Heald's comments.

"This is crap," Raqqawi told RFE/RL. "It's a lie. The people in Raqqa are not happy."

Raqqawi also challenged Heald's assertion that IS has provided Raqqa residents with basic necessities and security.

People in Raqqa "can't find food and electricity and water," he told RFE/RL.

Water in Raqqa Province is "undrinkable" and has been so since IS took over the city, Raqqawi said.

And RBSS reported on September 18 that drinking water in al-Tabaqa city west of Raqqa has been brown and infested with worms lately.

Local Syrians pay inflated rates for water and electricity, according to activists.

But maybe it depends who you ask.

After all, IS provides free electricity and health care to foreign militants living in Raqqa.

Too Scared To Complain?

Why would people in Raqqa tell pollsters they thought IS was a positive influence, if they did not believe this to be the case?

Raqqawi said residents are simply too afraid of IS to say what they really think.

If they refuse to say they are happy in Raqqa, IS would simply behead them, he added.

"People are scared of everything," Raqqawi told RFE/RL.

IS has cracked down hard in Raqqa against anyone who speaks out against its rule.

The militant group has murdered activists who have opposed it, including at least one RBSS member.

RBSS said this week that the militants are scouring internet cafes in Raqqa city to find people who are working against them.



As part of its reign of terror, IS has taken steps to cut off residents from the outside world, restricting Internet access in Raqqa city and banning "dangerous" foreign TV channels in areas under its control.

Polling In Raqqa

So just who did ORB ask in Raqqa? And given the climate of fear in IS-controlled areas, could respondents really say what they truly think about IS?

RFE/RL attempted to contact ORB's Heald for further details on the polling methodology used in Raqqa but had not received a response from him by late on September 18.

Henry Potts, a chartered statistician at University College London, set out a few of the questions that he would put to ORB in order to better assess the validity of the poll.

Potts said it was important to know more about how ORB tried to randomly interview people in Raqqa.

Even though pollsters try to contact a random sample of people, those who respond will probably not be random -- and that can introduce bias.

"We know this is a problem in the U.K. and it will only be worse if people are concerned for their safety," Potts said.

Potts also wanted to know if IS guided ORB's interviewers to specific areas in Raqqa.

If the interviews were done in public spaces, that would have implications for who the pollsters met and also what people were willing to say, said Potts.

People being dishonest on polls is problematic even in the West, because people sometimes feel socially pressured to respond with answers they think the pollster wants to hear.

"Clearly the situation in IS-controlled areas is far more dangerous," Potts said.

"People may lie outright, give the answer they think is wanted or is safe -- and people can also decline to take part, which biases the result."


Why Putin Wants To Tar IS And All Assad's Enemies With The Same Brush

Free Syrian Army rebel fighters fire rockets towards government forces in the northern countryside of Quneitra in June this year.

Joanna Paraszczuk

Earlier this week, we noted how a pro-Kremlin website claimed the extremist group Islamic State (IS) had sent Chechen militants to Latakia province in Syria.

The report was incorrect -- the Chechen group is not part of IS.

But it was almost certainly an intentional obfuscation.

Russia's conflation of all armed opposition groups with extremist Islamist militants is an integral part of a narrative that has evolved during the Syrian conflict.

Its goals are to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power, counter the United States, and maintain influence in the Middle East.

The "IS threat" narrative contains several arguments that Moscow puts forward in support of these aims.

1. ‘There Are No 'Moderate' Rebels’

According to Moscow, the vast majority of groups fighting Assad are foreign-backed terrorists, not "moderate rebels."

"The Free Syrian Army does not exist," Russia's ambassador to international organizations in Geneva, Aleksei Borodavkin, told the United Nations a year ago, referring to the Western-backed umbrella of moderate rebel forces.

This narrative is partly true. In the north and increasingly the center of Syria, rebel factions are mostly Islamist or Islamist-influenced. Some, like the Al-Nusra Front and the foreign fighter groups, are Salafist-jihadist.

U.S. attempts to bolster moderate rebels have gone awry. The first group to receive U.S. weapons collapsed in March and the United States said this week that there are only "four or five" U.S.-trained rebels fighting IS.

But moderate rebels are still influential in some parts of Syria's far south, where Jordan's intelligence services are active.

2. 'IS Wants To Destroy Syria'

Moscow has warned that IS and other Islamist groups are threatening to turn Syria into a "terror state."

Therefore, eradicating these groups is more important than ousting Assad, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

3. 'Assad Has To Be Part Of Fight Against IS'

Russia has insisted that Assad must be part of the fight against IS, claiming that Syrian armed forces are "the most effective military force on the ground."

Meanwhile, Russia has frequently slammed the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, saying that it is both illegal (because it has not asked Assad's permission to operate) and ineffective.

4. 'Rebels Should Unite With Assad Against IS'

Both Russia and Assad argue that the threat posed by Islamic State is so great, rebels should unite with government forces to counter the militants.

On September 16, Assad used an interview with Russian news outlets to call on rebels to stop fighting him and help him defeat IS.

Only then can Syrians work on a political solution to the conflict, Assad explained.

Assad's call may seem unrealistic. But it is not a new tactic.

Moscow first put forward the idea nearly two years ago.

"Everything must be done to create a battle-worthy alliance of the government and the patriotic opposition against the terrorist interlopers who flock to Syria from around the world," Lavrov told Russian TV in December 2013.

4. 'The West Is Responsible For IS'

Both Moscow and Damascus have blamed the West for the rise of IS (and other Islamist groups in Syria), saying that while Washington is quick to say Islamic State is a terror group, it has backed other armed groups against Assad.

In February, Putin said the rise of IS was the result of Western "interference" in Syria as well as "double standards" over who it deemed terrorists.

Assad repeated this narrative in an interview with Russian media this week.

"What are IS and the other groups? A Western extremist project," the Syrian leader said.

5. 'Russia's Military Build Up In Latakia Is To Fight IS'

The claim that Assad is essential to countering the IS threat has provided Russia with an argument for its military buildup in Syria -- which is causing increasing alarm from the United States.

"We support the government of Syria in its effort to counter terrorist aggression," is how Putin explained the Russian military expansion in Latakia at a September 15 security summit in Tajikistan.

The Real Threat To Assad

As Russia continues its military build-up in Syria, it has also stepped up its use of the "IS threat" narrative.

But these moves are only partly about IS.

While Islamic State is a threat, a bigger problem for Assad is the advance of other radical Islamist battalions, particularly Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate -- the Al-Nusra Front -- and Ahrar al-Sham, one of the most powerful rebel groups in Syria.

Part of the Jaish al-Fatah military operations coalition, Nusra and Ahrar have driven out government forces from almost all of Idlib province.

And they now threaten Latakia, Assad's coastal stronghold.

But the war is not being fought on the battlefield alone.

Russia's best chance to save its ally in Damascus could be an agreement with the West that while Assad should go or at least be demoted, most of his regime remains in place.

And the only way to achieve that is by persuading Washington and its allies that this would be the best way to fight IS.


Uzbek Militant: Jihad Has No Age Limit

The Uzbek militant's comments came in reaction to an RFE/RL's report about the death of the teenage son of Imam Bukhari Jamaat's leader, Salahuddin al-Uzbeki.

Joanna Paraszczuk and Barno Anvar

An Uzbek militant who claims to be fighting alongside the Taliban-aligned Imam Bukhari Jamaat in Syria has attempted to justify the use of children as fighters on the battlefield.

The militant, who communicated with RFE/RL's Uzbek Service via the WhatsApp messaging service on September 13, claimed he was in Syria and used a Syrian cellphone number. He declined to give his name, but claimed to be the same militant who spoke with RFE/RL's Uzbek Service in August. 

The militant's group, the Imam Bukhari Jamaat, claims to have pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban in 2014 and regularly fights alongside Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.

The Uzbek militant's comments came in reaction to RFE/RL's report earlier this month about the death of the teenage son of Imam Bukhari Jamaat's leader, Salahuddin al-Uzbeki. 

The militant claims to have witnessed the death of the boy, Umar, who was killed fighting alongside his father against Syrian government forces in Aleppo province, where the Uzbek group is based. 

Dead At 14

The militant's September 13 interview offers more details of Umar's death as well as insights into the ideology of the Imam Bukhari group regarding the use of children as militants.

The Uzbek militant told RFE/RL that Salahuddin's son, Umar, was 14 and not 16 as reported earlier this month by Chechen militants in Syria.

"The son of Sheikh Salahuddin was a shahid [martyr]," the militant wrote, adding that the boy was shot dead at close range by a gunman. "I was in the same row as Umar. The gunman killed him from nine meters."

The Uzbek militant said the boy was a "commander" in the Uzbek group.

"Umar, the 14-year-old son of our amir [leader] Salahuddin was our commander, because he was very brave," the militant explained.

According to the militant, Umar is not the only child militant recruited by the Uzbek extremist group.

"Here we have 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, 14 -year-old mujahedin ["jihadi fighters"] with guns in their hands," the Uzbek militant claimed.

However, he did not clarify if the younger ones were used on the front lines.

Justifying Child Fighters

The militant said that "jihad" -- a concept used by militant Islamists in part to refer to violent armed struggle -- is not dependent on age.

The Uzbek militant gave a historical precedent to back up his reasoning.

"The son of Caliph Umar was 10 years old when he went to jihad," the militant said, referring to Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, or ruler, of the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate, an empire established in the seventh century.

"You can go to wage jihad at any age," the militant added. 

"If you do not help your brothers in very difficult times, then when do you [help them]?"

The Uzbek militant also referred to another aspect of militant Islamist ideology to justify the death of 14-year-old Umar.

"Mujahedin do not die, they will live forever," the militant said.

The belief that "martyrs" are granted eternal life comes from an interpretation of a Koranic verse that reads: "And do not say about those who are killed in the way of Allah, 'They are dead.' Rather, they are alive but you perceive it not."

'Better Than IS'

The Uzbek militant went on to say that the Imam Bukhari Jamaat does not operate in the same way as Islamic State, a group he harshly criticized in his previous interview with RFE/RL.

"In Syria, we do not kill Muslims, like they do in IS-controlled territory," the militant said. 

"You can come to see for yourselves or send your munafiq agents here," the militant added, using an Arabic term that means a hypocrite, a person who pretends to practice Islam but does not really believe.

"Nowadays we have lots of agents and spies coming from all around the world."

Written by Joanna Paraszcuk based on an interview by RFE/RL Uzbek Service correspondent Barnohon Isakova

Latest News

-- German militants are reportedly working in a specialist Islamic State (IS) torture unit responsible for the arrest and interrogation of deserters and dissidents, according to a German media report based on transcripts of police interrogations of a former militant named as Nils D. 

 

-- Almost 80 percent of Russia's declared targets in Syria have been in areas not held by IS, according to a Reuters analysis of Russian Defense Ministry data. The majority of strikes have been in areas held by other groups opposed to the Syrian government, including Al-Qaeda affiliates and groups backed by the United States. 

 

-- A major increase in violence by IS saw over 1,000 attacks and almost 3,000 deaths worldwide in the past three months, analysts from the firm IHS Janes said on October 22. Janes recorded a huge 65.3 percent increase in attacks compared to the previous three months.

 

-- Bahrain has charged 24 people with trying to set up a branch of IS in the kingdom and for promoting the overthrow of the Persian Gulf state's monarchy, the public prosecutor's office said on October 21. 

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About This Blog

"Under The Black Flag" provides daily news and analysis about Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, and examines the response to that militant group in the Arab world, Iran, and across the former Soviet Union. The blog's author, Joanna Paraszczuk, has reported from Russia and the Middle East and has a special interest in researching Russian-speaking foreign fighters in Syria and blogs at chechensinsyria.com.