Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Sunni rebels have been bolstered by the arrival of scores
of Chechen fighters in the war against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Islamist sources said Qatar and Saudi Arabia have financed the
recruitment of fighters from the autonomous Russian province of Chechnya.

The sources said most of the Chechens were veterans of the 15-year
rebellion against Moscow as well as specialists in bomb-making.

“The Chechens are regarded as the best of the jihadist fighters and have
been used in several campaigns,” an Islamist source said.

In 2013, Islamist Chechens launched a recruitment drive over the
Internet. Islamist leader Omar Abu Al Chechen distributed a video in which he urged Chechens to join the war against Assad.

“We have missed many chances, but truly today there is a chance to
establish [an Islamic state] on Earth,” Al Chechen, believed to be a nomme
de guerre, said.

The sources said Al Chechen, who comes from Russia’s North
Caucasus region, has been leading Chechen units in Syria. They identified Al Chechen as the commander of the Brigade of Migrants, a militia comprised of foreign fighters.

“Jihad needs very many things,” Al Chechen, seen in the video addressing
some 20 men with rifles, said. “First of all, it needs money. Much is
dependent on money today for jihad.”

So far, the sources said, at least 100 Chechens have been fighting in
the Sunni revolt in Syria. They said this marked one of the largest foreign
recruitment of Chechens, believed to have also fought in Afghanistan.

The Chechens were said to be highly disciplined and daring. The sources
said at least 17 of them were killed in a battle with the Syrian Army
outside Aleppo in February 2013.

Non-Islamist rebel militias have frowned upon the recruitment of
Chechens and other foreign fighters. The Free Syrian Army, said to oversee
much of the rebel war, also urged Islamists to stay home.

“If you want to help us just send us weapons or funding or even pray for
us, but you do not have to come to Syria,” FSA commander Maj. Gen. Salim
Idris said.

  Aleppo, Brigade of Migrants, Free Syrian Army, Gulf states recruit Chechen veterans for war against Syria’s Assad, Maj. Gen. Salim Idris, Omar Abu Al Chechen