Syrian Rights Group Says Omar Shishani Not Killed in Strike

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Fri Mar 11, 2016 at 07:44:00 AM EST
Tags: Umar al Shishani, ISIS, Iraq, Syria (all tags)

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Two days ago, the U.S. said it targeted Georgian ISIS military leader Omar (Umar) al Shishani (originally from the Russian Caucasus) in an airstrike in al-Shadadi, Syria. The U.S. said he was believed to be dead. (Shishani, whose real name is Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, been high on the U.S. designated terrorist list for a while. )

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (which is highly critical of ISIS) yesterday said Shishani was badly injured in the strike but was not killed. He's been transferred to a hospital in Raqqa, where he's being treated by a European jihadist doctor. [More...]

His bodyguards have been reported killed.

Shishani has falsely been reported killed many times. Three weeks ago it was reported he had arrived in Libya. It's also been reported that he recruited Jihadi John (Mohamed Emwazi), but it was also reported that Amr al Ibsi (killed last week) recruited him. My thoughts a few months ago:

My best guess is [Jihadi John] joined up with Amr al-Ibsi and with Chechen Omar al Shishani, when Shishani broke with Nusra and brought his immigrant fighter battallion to al Baghdadi and ISIS. It may be that it was al Ibsi, who was in charge of prisons, who made him a prison guard.

When he first got to Syria, he was with Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Answar. He split from that group and declared his allegiance to al Baghdadi. Those that went with him included a group of foreign fighters called Katibat al-Muhajireen (Emigrants Brigade), also known as the Muhajireen Brigade, which reportedly included "Jihadi John". When Emwazi's ide