Experts: Omar al-Shishani is not a key figure for IS militants

A field commander of the "Islamic State" (IS) (the IS has been recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and some countries of the world, – note of the "Caucasian Knot"), a native of Georgia Tarkhan Batirashvili, also known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, has authority among the militants from the Caucasus, but he is not a key figure for the IS, believe the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". According to their version, the captivity or death of Batirashvili will not lead to any large-scale return of militants from Syria to Russian.

Earlier, it was reported that al-Shishani was captured by US Special Forces on December 25, but the Pentagon spokesman later refuted this information.

Even if Batirashvili was indeed captured, it is unlikely to have an essential impact on the conflict participants from Northern Caucasus, said Andrei Arishev, the head of the Russian Society of Researchers of the Caucasus. In his opinion, it is not likely that after a successful military campaign against the IS, militants from Russia will return home.

If al-Shishani is captured, the inflow of those who wish to participate in the warfare in Syria for the IS will go down, believes Umar Idigov, the head of the Foundation for Integration of Caucasian Nations.

"Basically, natives from the Pankisi Gorge and Chechnya went to fight in Syria because of the authority of Abu Omar al-Shishani," he explained.

Batirashvili is not the key figure for North-Caucasian militants in Syria, said Evgeny Satanovskiy, the President of the Independent Scientific Centre "Middle East Institute".

 Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.