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Shortly before 7:00 AM On May 9, 2016, two heavily armed men disguised as goat herders confronted Chechen police at a checkpoint, which leads into Grozny the capital of Chechnya. When officers would not let them pass one of the men detonated his suicide vest.  Six police officers were wounded in the confrontation, and authorities killed the other suspect. The attack has been part of a pattern of attacks directed at law enforcement and is strongly believed to be inspired by the Islamic State (IS).

Reports indicate that the two assailants were Ahmed Inalov born in 1991 and Shamil Dzhanaraliev born in 1989. Media reports note that at least one of the two attackers had travelled to Syria.  While in most of Russia May 9th signifies Victory Day, marking the end of World War II,  May 9 also holds significance to Chechen rebels as it marks the anniversary of the assassination of former Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, father of Ramzan Kadyrov. Akhmad Kadyrov was killed when Chechen rebels detonated and explosive under his chair at the Central Stadium during a Victory Day Parades.

There has been an uptick in jihadist activities in the Northern Caucasus in recent months. On April 11, 2016, three suicide bombers attacked a police station in Novoselitsky in the Southern Russian province of Stavropol. Novoselitsky located near the town of Budyonnovsk, which was a hotbed for terrorism during the Chechen campaign of the mid-1990s. In addition, IS claimed responsibility for two attacks on police stations in Dagestan this past March.

In 2015, the Chechen Emir and Caucasus military commander, Aslan Buytukaev pledged allegiance to the IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on behalf of all 15,000 Caucasus rebel fighters.

Kadyrov has a reputation for serving as a Russian proxy. Kadyrov has supported Russian interests by reportedly providing Chechen troops to help back the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, and vowed to help defeat Islamic State. Kadydov has survived several assassination attempts made on him, including n IS-inspired assassination plot last November.

Kadyrov has taken a hard stance against Islamic State threatening death or jail for Chechens who join the group, but also claimed only a handful of Chechen have joined IS. Chechen law enforcement however claims between 3,000-4,000 Chechens have joined IS.

Like other long time jihadist conflict zones such as Bosnia, Chechnya is likely to remain significant source for Islamic terror recruiting, particularly by Islamic State. While Kadyrov, backed by Russia, is unlikely to be destabilized in the near future, security challenges for Chechnya will remain.

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