2010 Tsentoroy Attack | |||||||
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Part of North Caucasus Insurgency | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Civilians 7 wounded [1] |
The 2010 Tsentoroy Attack was an insurgent operation carried out on the morning of 29 August 2010 by Chechen rebels in Tsentoroy (also known as Khosi-Yurt), Chechnya, the home village and stronghold of pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. The assault - which represented the largest and most audacious attack launched in the republic for over a year [4] - is considered to have "shattered" the image of Kadyrov's unshakeable rule in Chechnya, as it was the first time in six years that his seemingly impregnable village had come under attack. [2]
According to the rebel website Kavkaz Center, three detachments totaling up to 60 militants (and featuring ten suicide bombers) [6] led by Emirs Zaurbek, Makhran, and Abdurakhman - commanders directly subordinate to Aslambek Vadalov [2] - entered the village around 4:30 a.m. local time. [4] The rebels overran two checkpoints and destroyed an armored personnel carrier before setting fire to ten of the homes of Kadyrov’s closest associates; they also seized ammunition and communications equipment. [7] The militants were said to have employed the tactics of Afghanistan's Taliban, with groups of guerrillas attacking an object and inflicting as much damage as possible with no intention of retreating; some reports claimed that the militants “practically captured” the village for several hours and that the government had to revert to using artillery and helicopters to drive them out. [2] During the fighting the militants managed to send an SMS message to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s North Caucasus service at 6:30 a.m. saying, “Tsentoroy is burning,” [4] and television footage the following day showed a burnt-out car just 150 meters from the entrance to Kadyrov’s fortress-like residence, exhibiting just how deeply the brazen attack had penetrated the village. [7]
The version of events presented by Kadyrov was that his security forces had advance notice of the operation, permitted the fighters to enter the village and disperse, and then cornered them, [4] killing 12 "devils." [8] He also added that the only militants who managed to escape “were filming for a report to their sponsors, but we are confident they will be found.”. [8] Russian officials stated that all twelve slain militants were wearing explosive vests and that seven of those killed had detonated the vests and were thus unidentifiable; [8] rebel sources in the village disputed this, citing unnamed residents of Tsentoroy who claimed that at least some of the dead identified as attackers were actually young men held in Kadyrov’s notorious private prison that were executed on his orders so as to increase the body count. [9] Militant sources would add that the reason they were said to be “unidentifiable” was because it would have been clear that those dead were indeed long-held prisoners rather than members of the insurgent assault team, [9] an allegation that one analyst stated was “entirely in keeping with what is known of [Kadyrov's] treatment of anyone suspected of abetting, or even sympathizing with the insurgency." [4]
Chechen Interior Ministry sources would confirm that the insurgents entered the village and set fire to several homes, and a Chechen security official would also confirm that at least one of the fighters killed was from Zaurbek Avdorkhanov's group. [10] Additionally, it was also reported that the rebels used weapons that were seized from the Ingush Interior Ministry's armory during the Shamil Basayev-led 2004 Nazran raid; among the arms recovered at the scene were seven rocket launchers, three Kalashnikov machine guns, nine Kalashnikov assault rifles, sixteen rounds for various types of grenade launchers, three hand grenades, 1,500 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, eight improvised explosive devices, and ten additional explosive devices. [11]
An expert on the area speaking to the website "Caucasian Knot" called into question Kadyrov's estimate of the attacking force, noting that the number of fighters alleged by the Chechen President would be incapable of launching an attack on the village since "all approaches to Tsentoroy, not to mention the village, are completely controlled by law enforcement. To try and storm the town, where almost every citizen is armed or enlisted in various law enforcement agencies, appears very doubtful...it would be easier to attack Kadyrov's convoy rather than commit suicide by attempting to break into a well-fortified town." [12]
The day after the attack, Vladmir Markin, spokesman for the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor (SKP) of the Russian Federation, stated that the Central Investigation Department of the North Caucasus and the Southern Federal District would investigate the attacks. [13] On 2 September, Ramzan Kadyrov announced a reward of more than $300,000 for information about each of the insurgency leaders involved in the operation, which Chechen commentators interpreted as an indicator of the government's weakness. [2] Kadyrov also tightened his control over information coming from Tsentoroy by not allowing any of the village's 5,000 inhabitants to leave in the days after the attack; the citizenry were also allegedly under the threat of death not to talk about the siege or the damage inflicted by the rebels. [2]
The operation was also viewed as being impossible without the aid of informants in the circles close to Kadyrov, leading to "massive" interrogations in the village. [2] Some on Kadyrov's side allegedly blamed the incident on Isa Yamadaev's return to Chechnya, thinking that he or some of his associates may have supplied critical information to the insurgents due to a long-running, deadly feud between their two families; [2] nothing has since emerged to tie Yamadaev to the assault in any way.
Most analysis of the attack saw it as a "very painful blow" against both Kadyrov and Moscow. [4] Earlier in the month, a quartet of top insurgent field commanders - including Aslambek Vadalov - had renounced their oaths of allegiance to Caucasus Emirate supreme leader Dokka Umarov in order to continue to fight for Chechen independence rather than a pan-Islamic state encompassing the entire North Caucasus; whereas many commentators expected this to weaken the insurgency, the Tsentoroy attack proved decisively that the Chechnya-based fighters were still a force to be reckoned with. [4] Also in early August, Kadyrov made the outlandish claim that there were a "maximum [of] seventy" Islamist militants remaining in Chechnya; not only did the operation clearly refute that, but it also showed that the rebels still had strategists experienced enough to plan and coordinate a three-pronged attack as well as the types of mid-level commanders capable of carrying it out with minimal casualties. [4]
On 1 August 2012, Kadyrov announced that three militants involved in the attack had been killed in a special operation in Galashki, Ingushetia on 31 July. [3] According to the Chechen president, Russian security forces received information that the militants were due at a private residence to pick up a bride for Ibrahim Avdorkhanov, then laid explosives which detonated and killed the trio. [3] The slain insurgents were identified as Zaurbek Advorkhanov, Ibragim Advorkhanov and Ayub Khaladov, all who indeed participated in the 2010 attack on Tsentoroy. [3]
This account was disputed by Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who said the explosion actually took place on 29 July and that it was an accidental detonation of an explosive device, not a pre-planned operation by Russian security forces. [3] Yevkurov also stated that two men were killed and another injured, and identified the deceased as Idris Abayev and Alikhan Dolkhadov. [3] Following Kadyrov's 1 August statement, Ingush Security Council Secretary Akhmed Kotiyev revised Yevkurov's account, claiming that the men killed were indeed the Avdorkhanov brothers and Khaladov, and that they had been identified through documents they were carrying. [3] This remains unconfirmed, as the Russian government has offered no visual proof and militant groups haven't commented.
Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; and borders the Russian republics of North Ossetia–Alania to its west and north and Chechnya to its east and northeast.
Ali Musaevich Taziev, also known as Akhmed Yevloev, Magomet Yevloyev, and Emir Magas; born 19 August 1974) is the former leader of both the Ingushetia-based Ingush Jamaat and as the military wing of the Caucasus Emirate. On 30 September 2006, Taziev was appointed to the post of commander of the Caucasian Front by the orders of Dokka Umarov. In July 2007, one year after Shamil Basayev’s death, Taziev became his official successor as the most high-ranking military commander in the rebel forces. He is believed to be personally responsible for the death of several local high-ranking security officials.
Doku Khamatovich Umarov, also known as Dokka Umarov as well as by his Arabized name of Dokka Abu Umar, was a Chechen militant in the North Caucasus. Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.
In June 2000, the North Caucasian Chechen separatist-led Chechen insurgents added suicide bombing to their tactics in their struggle against Russia. Since then, there have been dozens of suicide attacks within and outside the republic of Chechnya, resulting in thousands of casualties among Russian security personnel and civilians. The profiles of the suicide bombers have varied, as have the circumstances surrounding the bombings.
Akhmad Avdorkhanov was a former head of security for Ichkerian President Aslan Maskhadov.
Khaled Youssef Mohammed al-Emirat, more commonly known as Muhannad, and also known as Abu Anas, was a Jordanian militant fighting in Chechnya. Following the death of Abu Hafs al-Urduni on 26 November 2006, he was named leader of the battalion of foreign fighters once commanded by the notorious Saudi-born Ibn al-Khattab.
The Caucasus Emirate, also known as the Caucasian Emirate, Emirate of Caucasus, or Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, was a jihadist organisation active in rebel-held parts of Syria and previously in the North Caucasus region of Russia. Its intention was to expel the Russian presence from the North Caucasus and to establish an independent Islamic emirate in the region. The Caucasus Emirate also referred to the state that the group sought to establish. The creation of Caucasus Emirate was announced on 7 October 2007, by Chechen warlord Dokka Umarov, who became its first self-declared "emir".
Vilayat Galgayche, formerly known as Ingush Jamaat, was an Islamist militant organization connected to numerous attacks against the local and federal security forces in the Russian regions of Ingushetia and Chechnya in the North Caucasus. Since 2007 it has been a part of the Caucasus Emirate and takes part in the Insurgency in the North Caucasus. The group is thought to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, mostly policemen, military personnel and officials.
Yunus-bek Bamatgireyevich Yevkurov is a Russian army general and politician. For over 10 years he was the head of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia, appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev on 30 October 2008. The following day, the People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia, the republic's regional parliament, voted in favor of Yevkurov's appointment, making him the third Head of Ingushetia. He is a career soldier, paratrooper, and Hero of the Russian Federation who was involved in numerous conflicts where Russia played a key role, including Kosovo (1999) and Chechnya. On 22 June 2009, Yevkurov was seriously injured following a car-bomb attack on his motorcade in the city of Nazran.
The Insurgency in Ingushetia began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. The conflict has been described as a civil war by local human rights activists and opposition politicians; others have referred to it as an uprising. By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the North Caucasus republics. However, by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened, and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years.
The insurgency in the North Caucasus was a low-level armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with the Caucasus Emirate and, from June 2015, the Islamic State, in the North Caucasus. It followed the (Russian-proclaimed) official end of the decade-long Second Chechen War on 16 April 2009. It attracted volunteers from the MENA region, Western Europe, and Central Asia. The Russian legislation considers the Second Chechen War and the insurgency described in this article as the same "counter-terrorist operations on the territory of the North Caucasus region".
Aslambek Ilimsultanovich Vadalov, also known by his nom de guerre Emir Aslambek, is a Chechen rebel leader fighting in the North Caucasus. He was appointed the supreme leader of the Caucasus Emirate on 1 August 2010, though this was later retracted.
The 2010 Chechen Parliament attack took place on the morning of 19 October 2010, when three Chechen militants attacked the parliament complex in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic, a federal subject of Russia. At least six people were killed, including two police officers, one parliament employee and all three suicide commandos.
Khuseyn Vakhaevich Gakayev, also known as Emir Mansur and Emir Hussein, was a militant fighting in Chechnya. He was one of the most senior field commanders still operating in the North Caucasus prior to his death on 24 January 2013.
Tarkhan Ismailovich Gaziyev, also known as Emir Tarkhan, is a Chechen militant commander who has fought in the Insurgency in the North Caucasus. The United States Department of State added Gaziyev to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists on 29 September 2015.
The Chechen–Russian conflict was the centuries-long ethnic and political conflict, often armed, between the Russian, Soviet and Imperial Russian governments and various Chechen forces. The recent phase of the conflict started after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and ended with the oppression of Chechen separatist leaders and crushing of the separatist movement in the republic proper in 2017.
On 4 December 2014, a group of armed militants of the jihadist organization Caucasus Emirate attacked a traffic police checkpoint outside the city of Grozny, Chechnya, Russia. The militants then entered the city and occupied the "Press House" building in the city center and a nearby school.