Aslambek Vadalov
| Aslambek Vadalov | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Emir of the Caucasus Emirate | |
|
In office August 1, 2010 – August 3–13, 2010 (disputed) |
|
| Preceded by | Doku Umarov |
| Succeeded by | Doku Umarov |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1972 Ishkoy-Yurt, GudermesChechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Nationality |
 Russia
|
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya Caucasus Emirate |
| Commands | Commander of the Gudermes Region Deputy Commander of the Eastern Front |
| Battles/wars |
First Chechen War Second Chechen War North Caucasus Insurgency |
Aslambek Ilimsultanovich Vadalov (Russian: Асламбек Илимсултанович Вадалов), also known by his nom de guerre Emir Aslambek, is a Chechen rebel leader fighting in the North Caucasus. He was appointed the supreme leader of the Caucasus Emirate on 1 August 2010, though this was later retracted.
Aslambek Vadalov was born in 1972 and is a native of Ishkoy-Yurt, a village in the eastern portion of Chechnya's Gudermes. Vadalov also seems to have spent much of his youth in the Gudermes region, though some reports have suggested that he studied for a short period of time in Moscow in the late 1980s, perhaps at a technical institute.
Following the outbreak of the First Chechen War in 1994, Vadalov joined the separatist fighters from Gudermes; he may have served in the unit of Sheik Fathi, a Chechen who had lived in Jordan and engaged in Islamist conflicts in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It has been postulated that if Vadalov did indeed serve alongside Fathi, it would indicate a very early exposure to the Islamist interpretation of the war in Chechnya.
Though Vadalov played no role in the 1999 Dagestan incursion led by Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab, following Russia's re-invasion of Chechnya that autumn he joined Khattab's Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya. After engaging in the battles for Argun and Gudermes, Vadalov's unit withdrew to the mountainous districts of Vedeno and Nozhay-Yurt in order to launch guerrilla attacks on Russian security forces.
In 2000, Vadalov returned to Ishkoy-Yurt for unknown reasons and joined a small, local guerrilla force; the unit operated both independently and in cooperation with other rebel formations, including taking part in the 17 September 2001 attack on Gudermes. The next few years saw the separatist movement incur significant losses, but Vadalov was able to distinguish himself mainly due to his survival skills. As such, he was named Deputy Commander of the Gudermes Region of the Chechen Armed Forces under Emir Askhab. Although this unit that he commanded lacked manpower, his team and him were able to launch numerous small but significant attacks against the Russian security forces, especially around Ishkoy-Yurt.
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Wikipedia