[Terrorism] Russia sees global jihad on southern flank | CSM

from the July 25, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0725/p07s01-woeu.html

Russia sees global jihad on southern flank

Sunday's train bombing is the latest in a string of nearly 80 deadly attacks in Dagestan so far this year.

By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

The Kremlin insists the wave of attacks that threaten to unhinge Russia's mainly-Muslim Caucasus region is being orchestrated by the same global jihad groups that have struck in London and Sharm-el-Sheikh in recent days.

Many experts, however, dispute this interpretation, arguing that Moscow's handling of the still-smoldering war in next-door Chechnya, as well as local poverty and corruption, have more to do with the roots of violence here. But most agree that there has been an alarming influx of foreign jihadis into Russia's vulnerable southern underbelly over the past year.

"Our forces have captured or killed citizens of 52 countries operating with the terrorists in the north Caucasus," says Sergei Markov, a Kremlin adviser. "The enemy brings an ideology of radical Islam that seeks political power through terrorist methods."

...

Recent incidents, including a bath-house bombing that killed 10 Russian soldiers in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala two weeks ago, suggest the attackers have absorbed sophisticated tactics used by jihadis in Iraq and elsewhere. A report issued last week by Igor Dobayev, an expert with the official Academy of Sciences, found that as many as 2,000 Islamist insurgents, many belonging to the Al Qaeda-linked Sharia Jamaat, are behind the wave of roadside explosions, car bombings, and assassinations.

"We are no longer talking about Chechen secessionists challenging Moscow," says Mr. Markov. "Now it's radical religious ideologues who aim to destroy the unbelievers and establish an Islamic caliphate."

Marc Says: I think the last sentence above expresses what is going on quite well. The US may not be at war with Islam, but segments of Islam are are war with the entire Third Wave (and the countries that are making the transition to the Third Wave inter-connected economies.