Sálih Abdulláh al-Suwailem, Samir

ثامر صالح عبد الله السويلم
     
Příjmení:
Surname:
Sálih Abdulláh al-Suwailem Salih Abdullah al-Suwailem
Jméno:
Given Name:
Samir Samir
Jméno v originále:
Original Name:
ثامر صالح عبد الله السويلم
Fotografie či obrázek:
Photograph or Picture:
Hodnost:
Rank:
- -
Akademický či vědecký titul:
Academic or Scientific Title:
- -
Šlechtický titul:
Hereditary Title:
- -
Datum, místo narození:
Date and Place of Birth:
14.04.1969 Arar
14.04.1969 Arar
Datum, místo úmrtí:
Date and Place of Decease:
19.03.2002 Čečensko
19.03.2002 Chechnya
Nejvýznamnější funkce:
(maximálně tři)
Most Important Appointments:
(up to three)
- poľný veliteľ čečenských protiruských bojovníkov
- veliteľ Vojenského výcvikového strediska centrálneho frontu ozbrojených síl neuznanej Čečenskej republiky Ičkeria
- Field Commander anti-Russian Chechen fighters
- Commander of the Military Training Centre of the Central Front of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Jiné významné skutečnosti:
(maximálně tři)
Other Notable Facts:
(up to three)
- spolupracovník Šamiľa Basajeva - Collaborator of Shamil Basayev
Související články:
Related Articles:

Zdroje:
Sources:
www.kavkazcenter.com
http://www.specnaz.ru/archive/05_2002/8.htm
www.zeka.ru
ru.wikipedia.org
http://www.fsb.ru/foto/hattab/hattab.html
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Salih-Abdullah-al-Suwailem-Samir-t57337#519812 Version : 0
Samir Salih Abdullah al-Suwailem
(better known as Ibn al-Khattab, or just Khattab)



* 14.04.1969, Arar, Saudi Arabia
+ 19.03.2002, Chechnya (poisoning)



- Chechen field commander, exporter of the Islamic Revolution




Although this future "insurgent by profession" was named Samir Saleh Abdullah al-Suwailem after his father, you would probably be hard pressed to find him under that name among the fighters in Afghanistan, Tajikistan or Chechnya. In all these countries he operated as Ibn al-Khattab (translated as the Black Arab), or simply as Khattab.


The place or date of Khattab's birth is currently difficult to determine. Interpol, which launched a manhunt for him years ago, gives his date of birth as 1965 and his place of birth as Saudi Arabia. Chechen sources also list Saudi Arabia as his birthplace, but push the date of birth back to 1969. Some Russian sources, on the other hand, claim that Khattab comes from an influential Jordanian family. His Saudi Arabian origins seem most likely, confirmed by his older brother Mansour al-Suwailem in an interview with the London-based Saudi magazine Asharq Al-Awsat. This version was also supported by a linguistic analysis of Khattab's speech carried out by Russian FSB specialists in the 1990s. However, both the Chechen and Russian sides rarely agree that Khattab's parents belonged to the wealthy class, and that his mother is a native of Turkey. As a pearl of insight, one can cite the hard-to-verify claim by the leader of the pro-Russian Chechen government, Akhmad Kadyrov, who, after returning from official trips to Middle Eastern countries, told the press that according to his findings, Khattab is neither Jordanian nor Saudi Arabian, but a Yemeni Jew.


As a child, Khattab was gifted and bright. He aspired to become a mathematician or a physicist, which is why his parents decided to send him to study at a prominent school in the US. But the young man decided otherwise. Influenced by the extremist teachings of Egyptian Seyed Qudb, the leader of the old and influential Muslim Brothers organisation, he ran away from home and decided to join the Jihad fighters. Heedless of his elder brother's persuasion, he joined the volunteers fighting in Afghanistan in 1987. He received his basic training at a training camp near Jalalabad under American instructors and also under Chasan as Serechi, who was later (1996) convicted in Saudi Arabia of conspiracy against the royal family.


In Afghanistan, Khattab took part in almost all the major mujahideen operations and became known for his heroism and intrepidity, which could, however, be called almost reckless. This underestimation of danger was almost fatal when, during the fighting for Kabul in 1993, he suffered a severe gunshot wound to the abdomen from a 12.7 mm calibre projectile.

After receiving treatment in an Arab country and after the Soviet troops left Afghanistan, Khattab, along with several of his loyal comrades, went to Tajikistan, where a conflict or civil war between Islamists and supporters of Soviet power was raging at the time. It was during the fighting in that country that he lost several fingers on his right hand in a grenade explosion. As a result, he was later nicknamed Achmed the One-Handed.


This was followed by fighting in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm against anti-Iraqi alliance troops, organizing terrorist attacks against the US and Israel, and further training in camps in Pakistani territory under American instructors.


At the end of February 1995, Khattab arrives on the territory of Chechnya. According to his statement in an interview, he learned about the war in Chechnya from a CNN news report and immediately "felt the need to help my brothers in the faith in their fight against the infidels." It may well be that such a justification for his arrival in Chechnya is capable of persuading the simpler listeners or viewers for whom it is primarily intended, and I therefore leave it without comment. One thing is clear, however. Khattab is not going to Chechnya with only his faith and a Kalashnikov on his back. He is also bringing with him a lot of money, without which organising resistance against a power like Russia would be unthinkable. Russian sources explain the origin of the money by linking Khattab to the terrorist network led by the No 1 terrorist, Osama bin Laden. Whatever the origins of the money, it was thanks to it, but also thanks to the help of Pakistani instructors, that Khattab set up his base after the end of the First Chechen War on the left bank of Chechnya's Chulchulau River on the premises of a former pioneer camp near the village of Serzhen-Yurt (Сеержень-Юррт) a training camp called the Caucasus. A large number of Chechen fighters, as well as fighters for Islam from abroad, were trained there during its existence. At any one time, it could train up to 1 000 fighters, who were taught by 40 instructors from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. That Khattab himself had something to impart to the trainees of these diversionary courses is evidenced by his relatively successful combat activity during the so-called First Chechen War (1994-1996).


Perhaps his most famous stunt was the ambush and destruction of supply column 245. motostreleckého pluku (245 мотострелкового полка) dňa 16.4.1996 in the area of Jaryšmardy (Ярышмарды). On this day about 100 fighters under Khattab's command set a trap for the column of the aforementioned regiment moving to Shatoi, Chechnya, with a cargo of food and fuel. The fighting began at 14.20 when the head of the column approached the bridge over the Argun River. The Boyeviches struck with grenade launchers as the first vehicles at the beginning and end of the column, making its movement impossible (those interested in World War II may find a parallel with Michael Wittmann's attack at Villers Bocage). Unluckily for the Federals, in the very first minutes of the battle, the column commander Major Terzovec's machine is also hit and destroyed, dying along with the crew of his BTR. After more than an hour of fierce fighting, a Russian reconnaissance company, sent to assist from the Arguna block post, approaches the surrounded unit. However, it immediately comes under heavy fire from the fighters and is forced to halt its advance. At 16.50 the hastily dispatched Federal troops try again to break through to the still fighting soldiers of the 245th Regiment, but do not succeed until about 18.00. When attack helicopters arrive at the ambush site, the Chechen fighters withdraw from the scene of the fighting and safely escape into the mountains. The Russians have paid a heavy toll for their negligence and carelessness. 73 soldiers were killed on the spot, 52 were wounded, 22 of whom later died of their wounds. Six infantry fighting vehicles, one tank, one BRDM and eleven cars were destroyed. Khattab's fighters took advantage of both the fact that the advancing column had no air cover, but also that there were no infantry reconnaissance teams deployed ahead of the advancing column that could have detected the prepared ambush. It was also a mistake of the Federal forces that strategic high ground along the route of advance was not pre-occupied.


One more major operation worth mentioning is the one that Khattab had planned for May 31, 1996. It was a carefully prepared ambush of a checkpoint (called block post) No. 2 of the tactical group of the troops of the Ministry of Interior, near the village of Shuani. The ambush began with simultaneous attacks by small groups of fighters on the nearest block posts in order to bind the enemy forces. The main attack was conducted on the aforementioned block post No. 2. Its garrison consisted of 27 soldiers who accepted an unequal fight. The unit's radio operator immediately radioed headquarters that they had been attacked by fighters and were fighting. He doesn't get to send more, however, as the Signalman's BTR is hit by a reactive grenade, which burns through the armor and the pressure wave ejects the Signalman's dead body through the open hatch. The soldiers fire only single shots at the attacking Chechens because ammunition is scarce - no supplies have arrived for over two weeks, and the firing average has been reduced each night by firing blindly into the area in front of the block post, fearing an ambush. Around midnight, the soldiers fire their last shots and, at the direction of the commanding lieutenant, throw the breech of their weapons and damage the barrels to keep their guns out of enemy hands. Then all the survivors surrender. The Khattab, who had the entire course of the battle recorded by a video camera, has the prisoners taken away and, after a week of imprisonment, parades them as an attraction to the locals in the central square of one of the rebel villages. Although the captives' guards have constantly threatened them with the fact that the Emir Khattab has ordered one of them to be cut every day, the boys are lucky. After some time, they are all exchanged for captured Basayevs in a ratio of one Russian soldier for every two boyeviks.


Following the signing of the Khasavyurt Peace Agreement in August 1996 between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Khattab is appointed by decree of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CHRI) as the commander of the Military Training Centre of the Central Front of the CHRI Armed Forces in view of his proven command skills.


Although relations between Khattab and Shamil Basayev were quite strained during the First Chechen War, the two found common ground in mid-1998 on the need to establish an Islamic imamate in the territory of the North Caucasus. After joint preparations, on 10 August 1999 some 2 000 Chechen fighters led by field commanders Khattab and Basayev attacked neighbouring Dagestan, occupied several settlements and declared an Islamic republic. Although they were forced to retreat after a concerted Russian counterattack, by attacking part of Russian territory Basayev and Khattab not only invalidated the Khasavyurt Peace Agreement, but de facto declared war on Russia. The second Chechen war had begun.


Khattab and his fighters managed to fight a few more successful combat operations during the second war, e.g. the infamous destruction of the 6th company of Pskov paratroopers at Kopje 776 in March 2000, but his days were already numbered. After several unsuccessful assassinations, the Russian secret service managed not only to get back on his trail, but more importantly, to get an associate who took a poison-soaked letter to Khattab. After touching it, Khattab dies on 20.3.2002.




Sources:
Gallo, Carlotta; De Waal, Thomas: Chechnya: victories and defeats. Themis, Prague, 2000
http://www.specnaz.ru/archive/05_2002/8.htm
www.zeka.ru
ru.wikipedia.org
http://www.fsb.ru/foto/hattab/hattab.html
http://terroristica.info/hattab.htm
www.strana.ru
www.kavkazcenter.com
www.interpol.int
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Salih-Abdullah-al-Suwailem-Samir-t57337#206962 Version : 0
the sources of the photos are listed in the preceding text
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Salih-Abdullah-al-Suwailem-Samir-t57337#209487 Version : 0
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