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http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 329 Antonio Alonso Marcos Central Asians fighting in Syria: the danger of... been trained in Waziristan from where he was then sent to Russia to recruit more members from among the large population of Central Asian migrant workers”40. Fighters from the former soviet republics fighting in Syria are called “Chechens”41, not just to link them in some way to the “noble cause” but also because recruiters in Moscow come from the Caucasus networks, and are either Dagestani or Chechen42, as is the case of one of the most famous recruiters, the Ingush Abu Zarr al-Ingushi43. IS’s Central Asians In 2013, a few Central Asians began travelling to the north of Iraq to try and control the zone. During that year, the Syrian civil war became even more complicated due to the entrance on the scene of the then-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Iraq and Syria (ISIS). From that point, ISIS became IS as it advocated for the creation of a single Islamic state – a caliphate – for the Ummah. Its call to fight in the Jihad rapidly spread and found resonance in these secularised societies where dozens of people answered the call. IS quickly and efficiently organised an entire system for the raising of funds and the recruitment of persons44. IS in Iraq and Syria is structured into regional “battalions”, and these into jamaat – smaller factions or “brigades” that bind together fighters with a shared ethnic or national origin or linguistic similarity. This is highly useful on the frontlines as it facilitates quick understanding of orders. The three jamaat made up of Central Asians are Sabri’s Jamaat, Jannat Oshiklari – also known as Tawhid wal Jihod (TWJ), and Katibat Imam al-Bukhari – or Imam Bukhori Jamaat (IBJ). They all fight together with the Al-Nusra Front in the Syrian province of Aleppo, although they do so 40  VINSON, M.: “A Look at Tajikistan’s Jamaat Ansarullah Leader Amriddin Tabarov”, Militant Leadership Monitor, nº 4, vol. 8, 2013. 41  Supporters of the pro-Russian Ramzán Kadýrov, called kaderovce or kadyrovites, are among the Chechens. See PARASZCZUK, J.: “Anti-IS Chechen Militants: We Don’t Like Kurds But We’re Glad When Anyone Kills IS”, RFE/RL, 28 January 2015, under http://www.rferl.org/content/anti-islamic-state- chechen-militants-cheer-kurds-in-kobani/26818140.html, consulted 2 May 2015. 42  “Syria Calling…”, op. cit., p. 5. 43  PARASZCZUK, J.: “Radicalized in Moscow, Killed in Syria: The Story of An IS Sniper”, RFE/RL, 30 April 2015, under www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-dead-ingush-militant-moscow-syria/ 26987151.html, consulted 1 May 2015. 44  See “Rich women found to be fundraising for Islamic State”, The Journal, 22 December 2015, under http://www.thejournal.ie/islamic-state-fundraising-by-rich-women-2514178-Dec2015, consulted 16 March 2016.

REVISTA IEEE 9
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