HOMO JIHADICUS

participated in IS mass executions of prisoners of war 176 ). Counterintelligence
operations are also carried out, with their objective being both exposing the
Assad regime’s spies amongst the civilian population on seized territory (for
example JMA’s actions in Aleppo – the arrest and execution of alleged agents of
the Damascus authorities) 177 and preventing the infiltration of their own ranks
by intelligence services agents of the countries of origin (for example the arrest
and killing of two Russian spies in Omar Shishani’s group 178 ).
Conducting combat training and securing supplies and weapons are important
elements of the armed groups’ activities. Military training is the domain of
the militants who previously fought in the Caucasus 179 , or in Afghanistan and
Pakistan 180 . The core of the post-Soviet militant groups is comprised of veterans
either of the clandestine militancy (for example Tarkhan Gaziyev, who for
years was commander of one of the Caucasus Emirate’s sectors in Chechnya)
or the armed forces of the countries of origin (for example Omar Shishani) 181 ,
who train new recruits using methods resembling those in regular armies.
All volunteers prior to joining the combat units must undergo month-long basic
training, followed by specialised training lasting up to several months 182 .
During the training recruits are indoctrinated, but the emphasis is typically
placed on military training (from drills and physical exercises, through expertise
in using various types of weapons, to live-fire tactical training, the
176
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/03/isis_executes_civili.php
177
http://www.akhbarsham.info/2015/02/10/108/
PRACE OSW REPORT OSW 09/2012 09/2015
178
Sergey Ashimov and Jambulat Mamayev, citizens of Russia and Kazakhstan respectively,
who admitted to being recruited by the Russian intelligence services and performing a mission,
the objective of which was to gather information about the post-Soviet volunteers
fighting in Syria and Iraq, as well as their leaders (above all Omar Shishani). Both were shot
by a teenage Kazakh boy – a student of an IS school for post-Soviet militants’ children:
http://videos.videopress.com/UwXee3Hs/the-islamic-state-22uncovering-an-enemywithin22_dvd.mp4
179
For example the Chechen special unit under the command of Ruslan Gelayev during the
first Chechen war.
180
According to accounts of American special forces soldiers fighting in Northern Afghanistan,
IMU militants trained in the movement’s camps in Pakistan, due to their tactics and
equipment were a much more dangerous enemy than the Taliban. Based on: http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/386-feitt.pdf
181
Above all volunteers from the Central Asian states (inhabitants of the Caucasus are rarely
drafted to military service), who underwent compulsory military service in their countries
– while obviously the level of military training in these countries is usually not very high,
they still constitute an added value, in comparison to volunteers with no prior military experience.
182
Based on materials published by post-Soviet militants in Syria. For example: https://archive.org/details/HMC_race
60