Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Caucasus Province
| Caucasus Province | |
|---|---|
|
ولاية القوقاز Participant in the Insurgency in the North Caucasus |
|
The Black Standard.
|
|
| Active | June 23, 2015 – present |
| Ideology |
Salafist Islamism Salafist Jihadism |
| Leaders |
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Leader of ISIL) Rustam Asildarov † |
| Area of operations | North Caucasus |
| Part of |
 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
|
| Originated as |
 Caucasus Emirate faction |
| Opponents |
 Russia
|
| Battles and wars | Insurgency in the North Caucasus |
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Caucasus Province (Arabic: الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام - ولاية القوقاز Wilayah al-Qawqaz), or ISIL-CP, is a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), active in the North Caucasus region of Russia. ISIL announced the group's formation on 23 June 2015 and appointed Rustam Asildarov as its leader.
Starting in November 2014, mid-level commanders of the Caucasus Emirate militant group began publicly switching their allegiance from Emirate leader Aliaskhab Kebekov to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, following al-Baghdadi and his group's declaration of a caliphate earlier in the year. By February 2015, many commanders of the Emirate's branches in Chechnya (Vilayat Nokhchicho) and Dagestan (Vilayat Dagestan) had defected. Kebekov and senior loyalists within the Emirate released statements denouncing them, and accused the most senior defector, Rustam Asildarov, of betrayal. Further pledges of allegiance to al-Baghdadi occurred in June 2015 by Vilayat Nokhchicho leader Aslan Byutukayev, and in an audio statement purportedly made by militants in Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.
On 23 June 2015, ISIL's spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani accepted these pledges and announced the creation of a new Wilayah, or Province, covering the North Caucasus region. Adnani named Asildarov as the ISIL leader of this area and called on other militants in the region to follow him.
The group claimed responsibility for its first attack, on a Russian military base in southern Dagestan, on 2 September 2015. In a video also released in September, Asildarov called on ISIL supporters in the Caucasus to join the fight there, rather than travel to Iraq and Syria.
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