Chechen IS Leader Threatens to Invade Russia

   

In a telephone conversation with his father, an Islamic State (IS) commander, Tarkhan Batirashvili, also known as Omar al-Shishani or Omar the Chechen, stated that the militant group plans to invade Russia, Bloomberg reported.
 
"He said "don't worry dad, I'll come home and show the Russians,'" Bloomberg quoted Temur Batirashvili, the father of the IS commander, as saying Thursday.

"I have many thousands following me now and I'll get more. We'll have our revenge against Russia," Omar the Chechen told his father, according to Bloomberg.

In September, the IS issued a video threatening to include Chechnya into its self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate.
In late September, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his Instagram account that Russia had enough power and the means to stop terrorists from crossing its borders. 

"Taking all responsibility, I declare that those who have voiced a threat against Russia or who have mentioned the name of our President Vladimir Putin will be destroyed right where they made their statement. We will not wait for them to get behind the steering wheel of a plane. They will go where his fellow terrorists are rotting," Kadyrov wrote.

Several hundred individuals from the United States and Canada, as well as about 500 Britons are believed to be fighting for the IS. There are also militants from other countries among IS fighters.

The IS, a sectarian Sunni Muslim militia, is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). It seized large parts of Iraq and Syria and proclaimed an Islamic caliphate on the areas under its control. 

Its rapid advance in northern Iraq triggered a response from Washington, which launched airstrikes against the insurgents fighting on the Iraqi soil in August. The military campaign was subsequently extended to Syria, with an international coalition set up to defeat the extremists.

According to the US State Department, the coalition currently comprises more than 60 countries, including Arab League members and a number of European countries.