12 Facts About Anzor Astemirov

Anzor Astemirov, known as Emir Sayfullah, was an Islamist leader in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in the North Caucasus.

For several years, Astemirov headed the local terrorist group Kabardino-Balkarian Jamaat, eventually becoming the main ideologist of the pan-Islamist militant organization Caucasus Emirate, as well as its wali of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Anzor Astemirov was killed in a gunfight with Russian security forces in March 2010.

Anzor Astemirov, who was fluent in Arabic, worked as a correspondent for the Arabic-language TV Al Jazeera.

In December 2004, Anzor Astemirov gained notoriety when he led a rebel raid against a Federal Drug Control Service headquarters in Nalchik, where several of his associates killed four officers, looted the armory and set the building on fire.

In May 2005, Anzor Astemirov gave an oath of loyalty to the Chechen separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev, and Shamil Basayev nominated him as the military amir of the Kabardino-Balkarian front of the Caucasian Front.

Anzor Astemirov publicly promised assassinations of high-ranking officials, businessmen and clergy, and was seen as the key figure behind the January 2008 killing of Anatoly Kyarov, a police official in charge of a special unit that specifically targeted the Yarmuk Jamaat and Astemirov himself.

In 2008, Anzor Astemirov took credit for the idea of the declaration of the Caucasus Emirate in 2007.

Anzor Astemirov said that after the deaths of Sheikh Abdul-Halim and later Shamil Basayev, he sent a letter to the new Chechen rebel leader Dokka Umarov, asking him what he thought about declaring an Emirate that would replace the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Anzor Astemirov's death was prematurely declared by the Russian authorities on several occasions.

The dead man was almost immediately identified as Anzor Astemirov after checking his fingerprints, and his followers confirmed the death of their leader soon after, in a statement on the rebel website Kavkaz Center.

Anzor Astemirov had a son with his former wife, Zukhra Tsipinova.