Liberation Army of Dagestan
| Liberation army of Dagestan | |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1999 - 2002 (disputed) |
| Active region(s) | Russia |
| Ideology | Islamism, Nationalism, Separatism |
| Status | Wiped Out |
Liberation army of Dagestan (Dagestan Liberation Army, Army of the Liberation of Dagestan) was a nonexistent militant organization claimed by anonymous callers to be responsible for the 1999 Russian apartment bombings.
On September 2, 1999 a journalist working for the Agence France-Presse news agency in Grozny received a phone call from someone by the name of Khasbulat. The caller identified himself as a member of the Army of the Liberation of Dagestan and claimed that it was responsible for the explosion at Manezhnaya Square in Moscow on 31 August 1999. He added that similar acts would occur throughout the Russian Federation until Russian soldiers left Dagestan. According to Khasbulat, the Army of the Liberation of Dagestan was a subdivision of the Islamic Army of Caucasus led by Sheikh Muhammed Baggaudin. The leader of the Wahhabi community, Sheikh Baggaudin, a native in the village of Karamakhi, had created this army in response to the assault of the federal troops on his birthplace.
On September 9, 1999, an anonymous person speaking with a Caucasian accent called the Interfax news agency, saying that the blasts in Moscow and Buynaksk were "our response to the bombings of civilians in the villages in Chechnya and Dagestan."
On September 15, 1999, an unidentified man, again speaking with a Caucasian accent, called the ITAR-TASS news agency, claiming to represent the Liberation army of Dagestan. He said, that the explosions in Buynaksk and Moscow were carried out by his organization. According to him the attacks were a retaliation to the deaths of Muslim women and children during Russian air raids in Dagestan. "We will answer death with death," the caller said.
Russian officials from both the Interior Ministry and FSB at the time expressed skepticism over the claims.Sergei Bogdanov of the FSB press service in Moscow said that the words of a previously unknown individual representing a semimythical organization should not be considered as reliable. Bogdanov insisted that the organization had nothing to do with the bombing. On September 15, 1999 a Dagestani official also denied the existence of a "Dagestan Liberation Army".
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