Murat Akhmetovich Margoshvili,[2] also known by his kunyaMuslim Shishani or Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani (taken from the Saudi fighter Abu al-Walid), was the emir of the defunct Junud al-Sham group in Syria and is one of the Chechen mujahideen in Syria. He gained prominence in the early years of the Syrian civil war largely because of his distinctive red beard.[10]
Early life
Shishani is a Georgian national belonging to the Kist people, a Chechen subethnos residing in the Pankisi Gorge.[14] He was born into a poor family and did not attend any local schools, becoming a shepherd instead. Later on in his childhood, his family moved to the Soviet Union where he finished basic education and served in the Soviet Army. Then the family moved back to the Pankisi Gorge and later back to the Soviet Union to settle in Grozny where Shishani worked in construction before the outbreak of the First Chechen War.[15]
North Caucasus wars
He joined Ibn Khattab's group in 1995 using his wealth to support the group. During the Second Battle of Grozny he was severely wounded. After healing from his wounds he participated in the Battle of Vedeno alongside many other battles.[7] A few years later he was promoted to emir of Vedeno.[6] After the death of Ibn Khattab he also served with Abu al-Walid in Chechnya.[1]
He was arrested on 11 October 2003.[18] According to Memorial, a Russian human rights organization, he and four other companions were abducted in Ordzhonikidzevskaya. He was eventually found jailed in Vladikavkaz.[19] Shishani was "convicted of involvement in an illegal armed group" in 2004, though he was acquitted of arms smuggling charges.[20] In February 2006 Shishani was acquitted on all charges by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia and quickly left the courthouse; afterwards the courthouse was "besieged" by agents who his Moscow Bar Association lawyer suspected to be part of the Federal Security Service (FSB).[21]
During the Russo-Georgian War a group that included Shishani notified the Georgian government that they had prepared 250 people in the gorge to fight against Russia[15] but the war ended before they were called upon.[4]
In 2008, he traveled to Dagestan and organized militants there[6] as part of the Caucasus Emirate.[22] Shishani was a prominent figure in the Caucasus Emirate where he mainly trained soldiers. His presence opened up a passage for fighters from Georgia to travel to Dagestan. He continued training soldiers in Dagestan until the Lopota incident around mid-2012.[15] After this, Shishani moved back to Georgia and tried multiple times to enter Chechnya and once he realised it was impossible, he went to Syria through Turkey.[7]
Syrian civil war
Junud al-Sham
Muslim Shishani established Junud al-Sham in 2012.[4] Sometime between his arrival and participation in the 2013 Latakia offensive, Shishani was in Aleppo, where he trained fighters associated with Sayfullakh Shishani's jamaat.[23] The offensive however was the first documented time that Muslim Shishani's group took part in active conflict. During this offensive, they captured the strategic hilltop village of Durin, earning Shishani the nickname Sopka Durin meaning "Durin hilltop" in Russian.[6] Later in October, Muslim Shishani, Abu Musa al Shishani and Sayfullakh Shishani merged their groups,[6] which came under Muslim Shishani's command.[24] After the merger the group took part in the 2014 Latakia offensive, capturing several key points along the Turkish border including the strategic Observatory 45 until they were forced to withdraw due to Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAA) attacks.[23][10] In September of that year, Shishani was sanctioned by the US State Department[25] for reportedly building a base for foreign fighters.[26] Shishani was also in contact with Tarkhan Batirashvili (Abu Omar al-Shishani) before he joined Islamic State (ISIS). After joining ISIS, Abu Omar was approached by Muslim Shishani to persuade him that "ISIS brutality had nothing to do with Islam." Shishani blamed Batirashvili's inexperience for joining the group.[4]
Shishani also played an important role in the capture of Jisr as Shughour. On 22 April, the first day of the offensive, he is seen alongside his deputies Abu Turab al-Shishani and Abu Bakr al-Shishani. They are overlooking the city and communicating by radio.[27] Two days later Shishani is seen in the city proper. [11] According to the Turkish newspaper Yeni Akit, Shishani participated in the 2018 Turkish offensive.[28] He denied this and said that his group was in Hama countryside during the SAA offensive.[12][29] In an interview from October 2018 he stressed the importance of Muslims needing to fund jihad. He also mentioned that there were injustices in many groups in Syria and that these groups regularly fought each other. He mentioned that this infighting could have been remedied if fighters were brought together and were financially supported. Later on in the interview he envisioned that "the Ummah will soon rejoice over our victories." At the end of the interview he advises the Mujahideen in Syria to be patient and prepare for the next round of jihad.[30]
In 2021 members from Junud al-Sham were involved in numerous criminal activities and used the group as cover to evade conviction. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) demanded Shishani cooperate to get the criminals arrested. Shishani released a statement wherein he said that the criminals were not in the group when the crimes were committed. He also clarified that he was asked to dismantle Junud al-Sham and leave Idlib after a summon from the HTS-affiliated General Security Service on 22 June. HTS affiliated media released a video on 8 July where it is claimed that the group did not fight during heavy offensives in 2015 and 2016. Furthermore criminals purportedly belonging to Junud al-Sham said that they were members of the group. Following this Shishani disbanded the group on 8 July and the group left their positions near Tuffahiyeh.[33]
Post Junud al-Sham
In October 2021 there were clashes in the Turkmen Mountain region between Jundallah and HTS. Shishani was allied with Jundullah but was forced to abandon them after learning that HTS was mobilising troops to fight Jundullah. He left the area of conflict with 70 soldiers.[34] Shishani later settled with his family[4] near the Christian village of Al-Yacoubiyah in the Jisr ash-Shughur countryside. That December, the Russian Air Force bombed his residence, killing a bodyguard and their child while failing to kill Shishani.[35]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
