Rappani Khalilov

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Rappani Khalilov
1969 - 2007
Rappani Khalilov
Nickname	Rabbani
Place of birth	Buynaksk, Dagestan
Place of death	Novy Sulak, Dagestan
Allegiance	Shariat Jamaat
Battles/wars	Invasion of Dagestan Second Chechen War

Rappani Khalilov (Russian: Раппани Халилов) (1969 – September 17, 2007), also known as Rabbani, was the militant leader of the Shariat Jamaat of the Caucasian Front during the Second Chechen War, in the volatile southern Russian republic of Dagestan. He was killed on September 17, 2007 in a shoot-out with GRU Spetsnaz, and MVD troops.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and militant activity 1.2 Leader of Dagestani insurgency 1.3 Death and legacy 2 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and militant activity

Khalilov was an ethnic Lak, the sixth largest ethnic group in Dagestan. In 1944 his ancestors were forcibly resettled from the mountains to the territory of a gorge in Aukhovsky (Novalaksky) District in the then Chechen-Ingush ASSR, which was vacated following the deportation of the Chechens to Siberia and subsequently became part of the Dagestan ASSR. Khalilov himself, however, was born and grew up in the city of Buynaksk in Dagestan. Khalilov's first name means "pertaining to God" in Arabic and is rendered Rappani in local dialect.^[1]

Khalilov was unknown to Dagestani security forces prior to 1998. In the Soviet times he had served as a border guard along the border with Mongolia. He was a part owner of a family bakery. Khalilov came to the attention of the authorities in 1998 when he married the sister of the Saudi Commander Ibn al-Khattab's ethnic Dargin wife. He moved to her home village of Karamakhi, which acquired notoriety in the summer of 1998, when its residents introduced Shariah law and declared an Islamic state. He grew close to local Islamist ideologists and is tought to have met Khattab and Shamil Basayev at a militant training camp in Serzhen-Yurt, south-eastern Chechnya, between the first and second Chechen wars which was run by Basayev and Khattab. In 1999 Khalilov was involved in the Dagestan War in which Islamist miltants sought to create an Islamic superstate out of Chechnya and Dagestan. After that raid was suppressed, he created his own unit of mostly Dagestani militants.^[2]

Khalilov first became well known after the January 18, 2002, bombing of a Russian military truck, which killed seven and injured some 20 Interior Ministry soldiers in the capital of Dagestan, Makhachkala. He was soon blamed by the FSB to have ordered the bombing of a parade near the military barracks in the city of Kaspiysk which killed more than 34 people including 19 soldiers and at least 12 children during a Victory Day celebration on May 9, 2002.^[3] Khalilov himself never claimed responsibility for this attack.

[edit] Leader of Dagestani insurgency

Khalilov was thought to operate in south-eastern Chechnya and the mountainous regions of western Dagestan. According to one expert cited by Radio Free Europe, "Khalilov's name and reputation was indeed comparable to that of Basayev."^[4] According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Khalilov was "highly popular with the local youth, whom he is actively drawing into his ranks."^[5] He has refrained from attacking civilians and instead targeted strictly police and military targets, as well as government officials and politicians across the poverty-stricken republic of Dagestan.

After former Chechen president Abdul Khalim Saidullayev opened up the Caucasian Front to spread the insurgency across the entire North Caucasus region of Russia, it is thought that Khalilov came under the authority of the Chechen rebels. This was confirmed when in a September 2006 decree, Doku Umarov, the successor to Abdul-Halim Sadullayev named Khalilov as a Brigadier General and made him as the commander of the Dagestan front.

[edit] Death and legacy

On September 17, 2007, Russian special forces launched an operation in the Dagestani settlement of Novy Sulak.^[6] Two gunmen were blocked in a private residence by several hundred heavily-armed republican and federal MVD troops.^[7] After the fighters refused to surrender, a 12-hour gun battle ensued during which the MVD troops were reinforced by the FSB Vympel special forces unit. According to the official information, two troops were wounded in the firefight; according to IWPR, one was killed and ten were wounded.^[8] RPO-A flamethrowers were used by the commandos to destroy the house, but the shooting has ceased at dawn of the next day, when the residence was crushed to the ground by an army tank and seven armoured personnel carriers.^[9] After examining the rubble, two bodies were recovered, identified as belonging to Rappani Khalilov and his deputy and right-hand man Nabi Nabiyev, also known as Abdurakhman.

Khalilov's death was later confirmed by the FSB^[10] and the rebel sources. Russian authorities announced they would not release the corpses for burial. Khalilov's deputy Abdul Madzhid became his official successor. Doku Umarov honored his fallen subordinate by granting Khalilov the posthumous rank of general and the "Honor of the Nation" award, the highest decoration bestowed within the separatist movement.^[11]

[edit] References

• Kaspiisk Bombing Chechnya Weekly Volume 3, Issue 15 (May 29, 2002) Retrieved from The Jamestown Foundation