Officials said Abdullah Kurd was killed in a Russian special forces
operation in Chechnya. They identified Kurd as Al Qaida's liasion to the
North Caucasus, who helped recruit and transport fighters to Russia.
"In the Chechen Republic, Abdullah Kurd was a member of the so-called
Arab groups of Al Qaida under the command of Khattab, Abu Al Walid and Abu
Hafs, whose criminal activity was suppressed before by the Russian Federal
Security Service with the participation of law enforcement officers,"
Russia's National Counter-terrorism Committee said.
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In a statement on May 4, the committee said Kurd was the latest Al Qaida
commander in Chechnya. The panel said Kurd, who began operating in the
region in 1991, coordinated the arrival of fighters and funds.
This marked the second reported killing of Al Qaida's liasion to
Chechnya. On April 22, the committee said Russia killed Al Qaida's commander
in Chechnya, a Saudi national identified only as Mohanad. The latest
announcement did not suggest that Mohanad and Kurd were the same person.
Kurd was said to have worked with Doku Umarov, overall Islamic commander
in the North Caucasus. The committee statement said Kurd coordinated the
flow of insurgency funds.