Omar the Chechen heads jihadist most wanted list

• David Taylor
• The Times
• September 26, 2014

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Islamic State terrorist Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, known as Omar the Chechen.

INTRICATE details of the Islamic State’s sophisticated network have been revealed by the US, along with a wanted list of 14 key terrorist fighters and facilitators.

The dossier, compiled by the US Treasury and state departments, names people with crucial roles in moving foreign fighters into Syria, and training them, as well as financiers, arms brokers and the man in charge of hostage-taking operations.
It lays bare a network which is raising funds in Qatar, sourcing weapons in Libya and luring new recruits from Britain, Denmark and Albania.
By naming individuals as facilitators of terrorism, the US hopes to attack the efforts of IS, Nusra Front and al-Qa’ida “to raise, transport and access funds that facilitate foreign fighters”. The move to designate the individuals as foreign terrorist fighters means that they are now subject to sanctions, and Americans are legally barred from assisting them.
The dossier was published after President Obama led the Security Council in passing a resolution, co-sponsored by 104 nations, to take legal action against foreign fighters trying to join the extremists.
It identified Tarkhan Batirashvili, a Georgian national known as Omar the Chechen, as overseer of an Islamic State prison near Raqqa where foreign hostages were held. He is said to have led a force of 1,000 Islamic State fighters against the Assad regime forces.
Another of those named was Tariq al-Harzi, a Tunisian in his 30s who was one of the first terrorists to join the terror group. Now a leading fundraiser, he was in charge of receiving foreign fighters at the Turkish border and providing them with weapons training. He organised $2 million in donations from Qatar, and ordered an attack on UN staff in Lebanon.
Others included: Amru al-Absi, an IS leader in Aleppo “in charge of kidnappings”; Salim Benghalem, a Frenchman convicted of murder in 2007 who carried out “executions” in Syria; Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a Kosovan Albanian who posted online images of himself beheading a man; and Murad Margoshvili, a Chechen leader in Syria who built a terrorist training base near the Turkish border.