Dokka Umarov

Doku Khamatovich Umarov (Ӏумар Хьамади кӏант Докка, ; Доку Хаматович Умаров, Doku Khamatovich Umarov; 13 April 1964 – 7 September 2013 ), also known as Dokka Umarov as well as by his Arabized name of Dokka Abu Umar, was a Chechen mujahid in North Caucasus.

Doku Umarov was born in April 1964 in the small village of Kharsenoi (Kharsenoy) in the southern Shatoysky District region of the Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, into what he described as an intelligentsia family belonging the Malkoy teip (the same clan as the warlord Arbi Barayev and Chechnya's former foreign minister Ilyas Akhmadov).

According to some sources, Umarov might have been convicted during his teenage years between 1980 and 1982 for either hooliganism, negligent homicide, or manslaughter.

Umarov studied at the Oil Institute in Grozny, graduating with a degree in construction engineering.

Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus.

He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.

During the late 1990s, after Chechnya's first war against Russia, Movladi Udugov's status as war hero enabled him to take the post of the breakaway Republic's Security Minister.

He later left the republic for the other parts of the Soviet Union and was reportedly working in the construction in Moscow when the First Chechen War began in December 1994.

There were also reports that he was engaged in "semi-criminal activities" in Tyumen Oblast.

During the 1994–1996 war, he took part in the fighting against the intervention of Russian federal forces, initially serving under the command of Ruslan Gelayev in the special force popularly known as Gelayev's Spetsnaz (Gelayevskiy Spetsnaz).

In 1996, Umarov left the unit because of disagreements with Gelayev and joined the command of Akhmed Zakayev, who had also left Gelayev's ranks to lead the splinter unit Wolf (Borz).

In the course of the war, in which his unit was expanded into a battalion and then a regiment, Umarov was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and won two of Chechnya's highest awards for valor and bravery: Hero of the Nation (Kyoman Turpal) and Honor of the Nation (Kyoman Syi).

Following the Khasav-Yurt Accord that ended the war in 1996 and the presidential election of Aslan Maskhadov in January 1997, Umarov was named by Maskhadov to head the Chechen Security Council, tasked with helping to contain growing chaos in the ruined republic.

In that position, he intervened in July 1998 to quash armed clashes between Chechen moderates and Islamic extremists in the city of Gudermes.

Since 2003, several of Umarov's relatives, including all of his immediate family, have been kidnapped by "unidentified armed men"; some were promptly released, but the others have disappeared and may be dead.

In 2003–2004, his cousin Zaurbek Umarov and nephew Roman Atayev were reportedly detained in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and then "disappeared".

Umarov said he returned to Chechnya to fulfill what he called his patriotic duty.

Shortly after the Beslan hostage-taking raid in 2004, during which Umarov's close relatives were held for several days at Khankala military base near Grozny, Prosecutor General of Russia Vladimir Ustinov suggested the practice of taking rebel leaders' relatives hostage.

In 2005, the Russian leading human rights group Memorial blamed pro-Moscow Chechen forces (Kadyrovtsy) for a policy of abductions of the rebels' relatives.

On 5 May 2005, a group of masked attackers kidnapped Umarov's wife, his one-year-old son, and his 74-year-old father, Khamad (Hamad).

According to the rebel sources, Umarov's family was abducted by the employees of the Oil Regiment (Neftepolk, headed by Adam Delimkhanov) and held in the Kadyrov family's private prison in the village of Tsentoroi.

On 24 February 2005, Umarov's younger brother Ruslan was kidnapped by armed men and then allegedly tortured by the Federal Security Service (FSB) at Khankala base.

In August 2005, Umarov's sister, Natalia Khumaidova, was abducted in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan; she was released days later, after local residents protesting for her return rallied and blocked a federal highway.

Between 2006 and 2007, following the death of his predecessor Sheikh Abdul Halim, Umarov became the underground President of Ichkeria of the unrecognized government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the post that Umarov eventually abolished himself when he renounced and abandoned Chechen nationalism in favour of regional pan-Islamism and jihadist ideology.

The political mantle of Chechen nationalist separatism was formally taken over by the self-exiled Akhmed Zakayev, Umarov's former wartime comrade and friend turned political rival.

Having quit the position of Chechen separatist leader, Umarov subsequently became the self-proclaimed Emir of the entire North Caucasus region of Russia, declaring it a putative Islamic state of the Caucasus Emirate.

Dokka Umarov was married, and believed to have six children, the youngest of whom was born in 2006.

Two of Umarov's brothers, Isa and Musa, have been killed in combat.

Umarov's wife and son were later freed, but his elderly father and the younger brother both "disappeared"; in April 2007, Umarov declared his father had been murdered in captivity.

He had taken responsibility for several attacks on civilian targets since 2009, including the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings and the 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing.

In 2010, Umarov abortively resigned from the position and appointed Aslambek Vadalov as the new Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, but soon afterwards issued a statement annulling the previous declaration and stating he would remain in his position and rebel Sharia court ruled in favour of Umarov over the rift, following which most other Russian rebel leaders re-swore allegiance to him.

For years, Umarov had been the top terrorist leader in Russia.

In 2011, the United Nations Security Council's Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee added Umarov to the list of individuals allegedly associated with al-Qaeda and Taliban.

In 2012, Umarov ordered his followers to halt attacks on the civilian population of Russia, while leaving military and security personnel as legitimate targets.

In July 2013, however, he announced the end of this moratorium and calling on Islamic insurgents in the Caucasus and beyond to forcibly prevent the holding of the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

Umarov was internationally wanted by the government of Russia and United States.

According to a report posted on Kavkaz Center, Umarov was poisoned on 6 August 2013 and died at dawn on 7 September 2013.

On 18 March 2014, Umarov's death was reported by the Caucasus Emirate-associated Islamist website Kavkaz Center, which offered no details but did say his death was confirmed by the Command of the Caucasus Emirate.

He was announced to be replaced by the Caucasus Emirate's senior Sharia judge Ali Abu Mukhammad, who then officially confirmed the death of Umarov in a video posted on YouTube.

On 25 September 2017, Russian media reported that the body of Umarov had possibly been found in a remote mountainous area in Ingushetia.