A SUICIDE attack on Russia’s busiest airport shows Islamist rebel leader Doku Umarov is serious about inflicting “blood and tears” on the Russian heartland ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
Umarov (46), a rebel leader who styles himself as the emir of the Caucasus, admitted responsibility for the January 24th attack that killed 36 people. He said he had dozens of suicide bombers ready to unleash on Russian cities.
Russia is struggling to contain a growing Islamist insurgency along its southern flank nearly 12 years after prime minister Vladimir Putin rose to popularity by leading Russia into a second war against Chechen separatists.
“Terrorist attacks will most certainly continue in Moscow,” said North Caucasus expert Alexei Malashenko, from Moscow’s Carnegie Centre. “I don’t think they are designed to be before elections, but of course they will not make Putin look good.”
The bombing of Domodedovo airport in Moscow, which authorities say was carried out by a 20- year-old from the Muslim Ingushetia region, came 10 months after twin suicide bombs on the Moscow metro that killed 40 people in the first attack on the capital in six years.
“Even if Umarov is killed tomorrow, he will be replaced by someone even more organised,” Mr Malashenko added. “The North Caucasus is full of Islamist organisations now.”
Mr Putin has hinted he will return to the Kremlin in 2012 or leave his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, in place for a new six-year term – either way keeping his hands on Russia’s reins of power for years to come.
Umarov suggested the North Caucasus insurgency would haunt Russia’s leaders for just as long, claiming he had a steady supply of suicide bombers ready for attacks against Russia.
In his 16-minute video, posted on several Islamist websites, Umarov vowed more attacks “on the territory of Russia. They will be carried out, God willing, there is no doubt about it.”
Chechen-born Umarov wants to create a separate state with Sharia Islamic law across the patchwork of Muslim republics along Russia’s south that he considers to be “occupied” territory.
“There will be hundreds of brothers who will be ready to sacrifice themselves for the establishment of the word of God,” Umarov, clad in camouflage and sporting a long black beard, said.
On Friday he said that five or six dozen men were presently ready for “martyrdom”.
Adding to the violence is the actual nature of the insurgency, which experts say has changed in recent years, mutating from a grassroots separatist movement towards jihad, whose propaganda and patronage point abroad. Regional Muslim leaders and rebels revile each other as blasphemous and criminal, but both welcome an Islamic revival. – (Reuters)