Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — On May 3, Yemen reported the killing of a Chechen commander of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Security sources said Chechens have been playing an expanding role in AQAP. They said AQAP has been recruiting Muslims from such Russian provinces as Chechnya and Dagestan as well as neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

“The Chechen element is growing throughout Al Qaida and Yemen is no exception,” a source said.

The sources said Muslims from the former Soviet Union have been flocking to Yemen over the past year. They said some of the Russian-speaking Muslims were taken from their home countries while others were transferred from Iraq and Syria.

The sources said the commander, identified as Abu Islam Al Shishani, died in a battle with Yemen Army troops in the southern province of Abyan.

“Al Qaida’s Abu Islam Al Shishani, a Chechen national, was killed in the Majalah area,” the Yemeni Defense Ministry said.

The sources said Al Shishani, a nomme de guerre, was a top Al Qaida
operative who fought Russian troops in Chechnya. They said Al Shishani led
fighters recruited from the Caucasus in an effort to expand AQAP control in
southern Yemen.

Al Shishani was deemed the second AQAP commander from the Caucasus
killed in May 2014. On May 1, Yemen reported the death of Abu Muslim Al
Uzbeki, an Uzbek national who led fighters in Abyan. Officials said Uzbeki
arrived in Yemen in 2011.

“Al Qaida militants have today suffered a crushing defeat,” a military
commander told Yemen’s official Saba news agency. “There are only few
terrorists who have escaped to Dhaiqa valley, and they will be hunted.”

Yemen has asserted that 70 percent of AQAP consisted of foreign
fighters. Officials said AQAP sustained heavy losses in a Yemen Army
offensive that began on April 29 in the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa. They
said at least 37 fighters were killed on May 4 in Shabwa amid heavy air,
rocket and artillery strikes.

“Most of those militants are from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia,
Chechnya and other countries,” an official said.

  Abu Islam Al Shishani, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Dagestan, Yemen reports ‘growing’ Chechen presence in Al Qaida insurgency