DUSHANBE, December 28, 2015, Asia-Plus – Some media outlets report that the U.S special forces arrested one of leaders of Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization Abu Omar al-Shishani in Kirku, Iraq on December 25. .
Besides, two other commanders of IS were arrested and seven others were killed in airdrops carried out last Friday, the district of Riyadh in Kirkuk process.”
Tarkhan Batirashvili, known by his nom de guerre Abu Omar al-Shishani (“Abu Omar the Chechen”) or Omar al-Shishani, is a Georgian Kist jihadist.
A veteran of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, Batirashvili became a jihadist after being discharged from the Georgian military and served in various command positions with Islamist militant groups fighting in the Syrian civil war. Batirashvili was previously the leader of the rebel group Katibat al-Muhajireen (Emigrants Brigade), also known as the Muhajireen Brigade, and its successor, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Supporters).
In May 2013, Batirashvili was appointed northern commander for IS, with authority over IS’s military operations and IS’s forces in northern Syria, specifically Aleppo, al-Raqqah, Latakia, and northern Idlib Provinces. As of late 2013, he was the IS amir (leader) for northern Syria and was located in and around Aleppo Province. He was also in charge of fighters from Chechnya and elsewhere in the Caucasus. Units under his command have participated in major assaults on Syrian military bases in and around Aleppo, including the capture of Menagh Airbase in August 2013. He is considered “one of the most influential military leaders of the Syrian opposition forces.” As of mid-2014, Batirashvili was a senior IS commander and Shura Council member based in al-Raqqah, Syria.
The US Treasury Department added Batirashvili to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists on September 24, 2014. On May 5, 2015, the U.S. State Department Rewards for Justice Program announced a reward up to US$5 million for information leading to his capture.
Tarkhan Batirashvili was born in the Georgian SSR, Soviet Union (now Georgia) in 1986. His father, Teimuraz Batirashvili, is an ethnic Georgian and Orthodox Christian. His mother was a Muslim Kist—an ethnic Chechen subgroup from Georgia”s Pankisi Gorge—of the Melkhi clan.
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Batirashvili grew up in the largely Kist-populated village of Birkiani, located in the Pankisi Gorge in northeast Georgia. In his youth, he worked as a shepherd in the hills above the gorge. Later in the 1990s, the Pankisi Gorge was a major transit point for rebels participating in the Second Chechen War, and it was there that Batirashvili reportedly came into contact with the Chechen rebels moving into Russia.
After finishing high school, Batirashvili joined the Georgian Army and distinguished himself as master of various weaponry and maps, according to his former commander Malkhaz Topuria, who recruited him into a special reconnaissance group.
According to the Georgian Defense Ministry, Batirashvili was arrested in September 2010 for illegally harboring weapons and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was allegedly released after serving about 16 months in early 2012 and immediately left the country. Batirashvili reportedly left for Istanbul, where members of the Chechen Diaspora were ready to recruit him to lead fighters inside war-ravaged Syria. He arrived in Syria in March 2012.
