In Midst of War, Ukraine Becomes Gateway for Jihad

[jakeXT]

Last edited Fri Feb 27, 2015, 02:48 PM - Edit history (1)

“OUR BROTHERS ARE there,” Khalid said when he heard I was going to Ukraine. “Buy a local SIM card when you get there, send me the number and then wait for someone to call you.”

Khalid, who uses a pseudonym, leads the Islamic State’s underground branch in Istanbul. He came from Syria to help control the flood of volunteers arriving in Turkey from all over the world, wanting to join the global jihad. Now, he wanted to put me in touch with Rizvan, a “brother” fighting with Muslims in Ukraine.

The “brothers” are members of ISIS and other underground Islamic organizations, men who have abandoned their own countries and cities. Often using pseudonyms and fake identities, they are working and fighting in the Middle East, Africa and the Caucasus, slipping across borders without visas. Some are fighting to create a new Caliphate — heaven on earth. Others — like Chechens, Kurds and Dagestanis — say they are fighting for freedom, independence and self-determination. They are on every continent, and in almost every country, and now they are in Ukraine, too.

In the West, most look at the war in Ukraine as simply a battle between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian government. But the truth on the ground is now far more complex, particularly when it comes to the volunteer battalions fighting on the side of Ukraine. Ostensibly state-sanctioned, but not necessarily state-controlled, some have been supported by Ukrainian oligarchs, and others by private citizens. Less talked about, however, is the Dudayev battalion, named after the first president of Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudayev, and founded by Isa Munayev, a Chechen commander who fought in two wars against Russia.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/26/midst-war-ukraine-becomes-gateway-europe-jihad/

The tie eater said last year

Mr. Saakashvili called Mr. Putin’s actions “very, very similar” to those in Georgia. “I think he walked into trap.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/20/world/europe/mikheil-saakashvili-georgias-ex-president-plots-return-from-williamsburg-brooklyn.html?_r=0

[Nitram]

1. Oh, noes! Ukraine "fascist" battalions are now fighting side-by-side with "jihadist" batallions!

Yeah, right. And Russia is a neutral by-stander to the whole affair, offering humanitarian assistance when it has the opportunity. Thanks for the propaganda update.

[uhnope]

2. Firstlook LOL

Greenwald-level journalism

[MisterP]

3. the Order of Battle has a lot of Chechens in it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Debaltseve

contrast it to the Transnistrian teamup--Kiev and Moscow are in fact tight allies against Chishinau

[jakeXT]

4. Munayev the founder died in Debaltseve

Last edited Fri Feb 27, 2015, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Isa Akhyadovich Munayev (Chechen: Мунаев Iиса, Russian: Иса Ахьядович Мунаев; 20 May 1965 – 1 February 2015) was a Chechen military commander who had fought for the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from Russia until being forced into exile in Europe around 2004. He was killed in action while leading a Chechen volunteer unit on the Ukrainian side in the War in Donbass in 2015
...
Munayev was killed in the battle of Debaltseve pocket on 1 February 2015.[3] He was 49.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isa_Munayev

And we'll probably see where the weapons will surface next

“Our goal here is to get weapons, which will be sent to the Caucasus,” Rizvan, the brother who meets me first in Kiev, admits without hesitation.

[MisterP]

5. fights with 8 factions that switch alliances every few years: this can only end well!