Ruslan Maratovich Asainov (born 1976or1977) is a naturalized U.S. citizen who left his family and joined the Islamic State in Syria. [1] He eventually rose to the rank of emir. In February 2023, he was charged with five crimes including conspiracy to provide material support, receiving and giving training, obstruction of justice, and support to a terror group that led to the death of one or more persons, by the U.S. Justice Department. He is originally from Kazakhstan and went to the U.S. In 2013, he decided to join ISIS as a sniper. He became responsible for training ISIS soldiers and how to work with weapons. He also sent information to the FBI and was paid for the information. He had posted pictures of war equipment and ISIS fighters. He sent in his message that "We [IS] are the worst terrorist organization in the world that has ever existed." [2]
He converted to Islam in 2009 and became interested in extreme Islam. He started his studies in the fall of 2013 about radical Islam. In September 2013, he prepared to travel to Syria. On December 24, leaving his wife and daughter, he took a one-way ticket from New York to Istanbul. [3] In 2014, he joined ISIS and he was trained as a sniper. Eventually, he became "Amir" and trained approximately 100 fighters how to use automatic rifles, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. During his five years of association with ISIS, he fought in areas such as Raqqa, Kobani, Tabqa, and Deir ez-Zor. Baghouz in Syria was the last place that Asainov fought in 2019. During his cooperation with ISIS, he tried to recruit another person from America as an ISIS fighter. He also wanted to collect money to buy a gun for that person. During his cooperation with ISIS, he tried to recruit another person from America as an ISIS soldier. He also wanted to collect money to buy a gun for that person. In a voice message he sent to his ex-wife, he introduced ISIS as "the most atrocious terrorist organization in the world that ever existed." His ex-wife also said that Asainov sent her a photo of three dead ISIS soldiers. He was arrested at Baghouz near the Iraqi border. He had destroyed his weapon and mobile phone before his arrest. He told his mother on the phone from facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that if he is released, he will rejoin ISIS until he dies. He had put the ISIS flag on the wall of his room in prison. [4] Asainov said that sometimes it took three hours for me to teach ISIS soldiers how to put their hands on the trigger. [5]
The federal jury accused him of five crimes including “an indictment charging him with conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS; providing material support to ISIS in the form of personnel, training, expert advice, and assistance; receipt of military-type training from ISIS; and obstruction of justice". [4] His lawyers accepted that he was a member of ISIS, but claimed that there is no evidence to confirm anyone died as a result of Asainov's behavior and beliefs. [6]
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll said it is possible that Asainov has to spend the rest of his life in prison for supporting ISIS. [7] According to the report by George Washington University's Program on Extremism, there were at least 64 Americans who have joined ISIS jihadists since 2011. [5]
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and an unrecognised quasi-state.
Al-Nusra Front, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, was a Salafi jihadist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law in Syria.
Foreign fighters have fought on all four sides of the Syrian Civil War, as well both sides of the War in Iraq. In addition to Sunni foreign fighters, Shia fighters from several countries have joined pro-government militias in Syria, leftist militants have joined Kurdish forces, and other foreign fighters have joined jihadist organizations and private military contractors recruit globally. Estimates of the total number of foreign Sunnis who have fought for the Syrian rebels over the course of the conflict range from 5,000 to over 10,000, while foreign Shia fighters numbered around 10,000 or less in 2013 rising to between 15,000 and 25,000 in 2017.
Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, known by his nom de guerreAbu Omar al-Shishani or Omar al-Shishani, was a Chechen-Georgian jihadist who served as a commander for the Islamic State, and was previously a sergeant in the Georgian Army.
Ahmad Abousamra, known also as Abu Sulayman ash-Shami and Abu Maysarah ash-Shami, was a Syrian-American Islamic militant and ideologue who served as the chief editor of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's Dabiq magazine. In 2013, he was placed on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's 'most wanted list' and made the subject of a $50,000 reward because of his connections to a Massachusetts terrorism investigation centering on his alleged close associate Tarek Mehanna, who was arrested in 2009 and convicted of terrorism-related charges in a Boston court in late 2011. He was featured on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list for allegedly attempting to obtain military training in his trips to Yemen and Pakistan for the purpose of killing American soldiers overseas.
"The Beatles" was the nickname for an Islamic State terrorist group composed of four British militants. The group was named by their hostages after the English rock group The Beatles, who referred to the members as "John", "Paul", "George", and "Ringo".
On 15 June 2014 U.S. President Barack Obama ordered United States forces to be dispatched in response to the Northern Iraq offensive of the Islamic State (IS), as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. At the invitation of the Iraqi government, American troops went to assess Iraqi forces and the threat posed by ISIL.
Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, better known as Abu Ali al-Anbari, was the governor for territories held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. Considered the ISIL second-in-command, he was viewed as a potential successor of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Military force of the Islamic State is the fighting force of the Islamic State (IS). The total force size at its peak was estimated from tens of thousands to over two hundred thousand. IS's armed forces grew quickly during its territorial expansion in 2014. The IS military, including groups incorporated into it in 2014, openly operates and controls territory in multiple cities in Libya and Nigeria. In October 2016, it conquered the city of Qandala in Puntland, Somalia. It conquered much of eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, territory it lost finally only in 2019. It also has had border clashes with and made incursions into Lebanon, Iran, and Jordan. IS-linked groups operate in Algeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and in West Africa. In January 2015, IS was also confirmed to have a military presence in Afghanistan and in Yemen.
Tariq bin al-Tahar bin al-Falih al-'Awni al-Harzi, also known as Abu Umar al-Tunisi, was a Tunisian man and senior leader of the Islamic State.
The Islamic State – Khorasan Province is a regional branch of the Salafi jihadist group Islamic State (IS) active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan and Pakistan. ISIS–K seeks to destabilize and replace current governments within the historic Khorasan region with the goal of establishing a caliphate across South and Central Asia, governed under a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, which they plan to expand beyond the region.
This article contains a timeline of events from January 2015 to December 2015 related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). This article contains information about events committed by or on behalf of the Islamic State, as well as events performed by groups who oppose them.
Salih Yahya Gazali "Israfil" Yılmaz, is or was a Turkish Islamist militant from the Netherlands, who fought in the Syrian Civil War from 2012 or 2013 until he disappeared in 2016 when he was allegedly killed in an unconfirmed airstrike. According to a captured jihadist, Yilmaz was executed by the Islamic State in 2018. His death however remains unconfirmed and according to intelligence agencies jihadist often fake their deaths to avoid prosecution in their home countries.
Collaboration with the Islamic State refers to the cooperation and assistance given by governments, non-state actors, and private individuals to the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, and Libyan Civil War.
Zulfi Hoxha, also known by the nom de guerre (kunya) Abu Hamza al-Amriki, or Al Ameriki, was an Albanian-American Islamic State (IS) senior commander and recruiter of foreign fighters fighting in Syria and in Iraq.
Alexanda Amon Kotey, known as Jihadi George, is a stateless former British citizen, drug dealer, and member of the Beatles cell serving life in prison at the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado for providing material support to the Islamic State and hostage taking resulting in death. Kotey has denied being a member of the "Beatles" but has admitted to serving in the Islamic State in Syria. He is serving eight concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war have come to Syria and joined all four sides in the war. In addition to Sunni foreign fighters arriving to defend the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or join the Syrian rebels, Shia fighters from several countries have joined pro-government militias in Syria, and leftists have become foreign fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The 2022 Battle of al-Hasakah was a large-scale Islamic State attack and prison riot aimed at freeing arrested fighters of the Islamic State from al-Sina'a prison in the Ghuwayran (Geweran) area of Al-Hasakah, Syria, which resulted in a partial strategic victory and major propaganda victory for the Islamic State, with hundreds of prisoners, including important Emirs, being freed from captivity. The attack was the largest attack committed by the Islamic State since it lost its last key Syrian territory in 2019.
Tareena Shakil is a British former terrorist who is notable for being the first, and only, British woman convicted of having travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State. She was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 2016 for willingly joining the terrorist group and for encouraging terrorist acts online. She had chosen to take her toddler son to Syria with her, and was later discovered to have made the one-year-old child pose with an AK-47 and wear Islamic State balaclavas for photographs. Both during and in the months before she travelled to join ISIS she posted content on social media supporting the Islamic State and justifying their actions, telling people to "take to arms". She messaged friends on the day she arrived in Syria saying that it was her 'responsibility' as a Muslim to kill 'murtadeen' apostates and that she wanted to die a martyr and carry out Jihad, yet would later claim that she had never agreed with killing anyone. Amongst other lies her trial judge concluded she made were her claims that she had not known that ISIS had committed atrocities before she went, her stories that she had been "kidnapped" to Syria, and what The Guardian described as her 'odd' claims that she had only put her child in an ISIS balaclava because the toddler "enjoyed wearing hats".