21 Facts About Ibn Khattab

Samir Saleh Abdullah Al Suwailim, more commonly known as Ibn al-Khattab or Emir Khattab, was a Saudi born Mujahid Emir, well known for his participation in the First and Second Chechen Wars.

Origins and real identity of Khattab remained a mystery to most until after his death, when his brother gave an interview to the press.

Ibn Khattab died on 20 March 2002 following exposure to a poisoned letter delivered via a courier who had been recruited by Russia's Federal Security Service.

Ibn Khattab would retain the title during his militant activities, which began in 1987, by joining the Afghan Arabs against the Soviet Union.

At the age of 17, Ibn Khattab left Saudi Arabia to participate in the fight against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Related searches

In March 1994, Ibn Khattab arrived in Afghanistan and toured fighter training camps in Khost province.

Ibn Khattab returned to Afghanistan with the first group of Chechen militants in May 1994.

Ibn Khattab underwent training in Afghanistan and had close connections with al-Qaeda.

From 1993 to 1995, Ibn Khattab left to fight alongside Islamic opposition in the Tajikistan Civil War.

Ibn Khattab was credited as being a pioneer in producing video footage of Chechen rebel combat operations in order to aid fundraising efforts as well as international recruitment, and he himself achieved notoriety in 1996 when he himself filmed an ambush he led against a Russian armored column in Shatoy.

Ibn Khattab's units were credited with several devastating ambushes on Russian columns in the Chechen mountains.

Ibn Khattab gained early fame and a great notoriety in Russia for his April 1996 ambush of a large armored column in a narrow gorge of Yaryshmardy, near Shatoy, which killed up to 100 soldiers and destroyed some two or three dozen vehicles.

Ibn Khattab was associated with Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who gave Khattab two of the highest Chechen military awards, the Order of Honor and the Brave Warrior medal, and promoted him to the rank of general.

Senior Chechen commander by the name of Izmailov told press how Ibn Khattab urged restraint, citing the Koran, when at the end of the war the Chechens wanted to shoot those they considered traitors.

Ibn Khattab set up a network of paramilitary camps in the mountainous parts of the republic that trained not only Chechens, but Muslims from the North Caucasian Russian republics and Central Asia.

In 1998, along with Shamil Basayev, Ibn Khattab created or reorganized the Mazhlis ul Shura of the United Mujahids, the Congress of the Peoples of Dagestan and Ichkeriya, the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment, the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade and a group of female suicide bombers, the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Shahids.

Ibn Khattab led or commanded several devastating attacks during this year, such as the mountain battle, which killed at least 67 Russian paratroopers, and the attack on the OMON convoy near Zhani-Vedeno, which killed at least 3 Russian Interior Ministry troops.

Ibn Khattab later survived a heavy-calibre bullet wound to the stomach and a landmine explosion.

Ibn Khattab died of poisoning on 20 March 2002, when a Dagestani messenger hired by the Russian FSB gave Ibn Khattab a poisoned letter the day before.

Ibn Khattab would receive letters from his mother in Saudi Arabia, and the FSB found this to be the most opportune moment to kill Ibn Khattab.

Ibn Khattab wrote his memoirs entitled Memories of Amir Khattab: The Experience of the Arab Ansar in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.