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Abu Omar al-Shishani

Abu Omar al-Shishani2 posts
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27 Oct, 2014

Sends Chechen commander to city

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ISIS orders al-Shishani to leave the Shingal area in northern Iraq to take over operations in Kobani. Another shift in strategy will be to remove its heavy weapons and artillery from near Kobane, in order to avoid airstrikes. ISIS also plans to increase the number of car bomb and motorcycle suicide attacks in the city.

Worked for U.S.-trained Spetznatz

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Al-Shishani is reported to have joined a Georgian Spetznatz (special forces) unit in the KUD, or central intelligence service, in 2006. The unit received U.S. training as part of military support for Georgia. He caught tuberculosis and lost his job in the intelligence unit, before going to prison for weapons possession in 2010. His father:

They trained all of the Georgian army back then… My boy was just 19 when he went to the army… This KUDI, where he was working, it was an intelligence and reconnaissance unit.

However, his father says al-Shishani (also known as Tarkhan) is a victim of his older brother, who is the real mastermind of ISIS:

Tarkhan is 27, not more—a child! Tamaz is his teacher. Tamaz ruined everything I had. Tamaz is everything, the main actor; Tarkhan is nothing.