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Main article: Second Chechen War

Caucasian Front (also called Caucasus Front) is a structural unit of the rebel Chechen Republic of Ichkeria armed forces, formally established in May 2005 by the decree of the new Chechen rebel President, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev. As of September 2007, it is being commanded by amir Magas (Akhmed Yevloyev).[1]

Contents 1 Summary 2 2004 Nazran raid 3 Dagestan crisis of 2005 4 2005 Nalchik raid 5 Ingushetia crisis of 2007 6 Other notable incidents 7 External links

While the anti-Russian local insurgencies in North Caucasus started even before the war, two months after Aslan Maskhadov's death, the Chechen separatists officially announced that they had formed a Caucasus Front within the framework of "reforming the system of military-political power." Along with the Chechen, Dagestani and Ingush "sectors," the Stavropol, Kabardin-Balkar, Krasnodar, Karachai-Circassian, Ossetian and Adyghe jamaats were included in it.

This, in essence, means that practically all the regions of the Russia's south between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea would be involved in the hostilities. The Chechen separatist movement has taken on a new role as the official ideological, logistical and, probably, financial hub of the new insurgency in the North Caucasus.[2] Increasingly frequent clashes between federal forces and local militants continue in Dagestan and Ingushetia, while sporadic fighting erupts in the other southern Russia regions.

Main article: June 2004 Nazran raid

On the night of June 21-22, 2004, hundreds of Chechen and Ingush fighters carried out a large-scale raid on Ingushetia, led by Shamil Basayev. The overnight attacks targeted 15 government buildings, mostly in the former Ingush capital Nazran. Some 60 Ingush and Russian membrs of the security forces, including the republic's Interior Minister Abukar Kostoyev, were killed in the attacks or methodically executed by the assailants, and 27 Ingush civilians were killed in the crossfire.

According to a July 2005 report by the Russian Academy of Sciences, there were 70 "terror attacks" in Dagestan in the first six months of 2005, compared with 30 for all of 2004. The attacks, which were becoming more sophisticated and deadly, primarily targeted Russian soldiers and the local police and government officials. Sources indicated that as many as 2,000 Islamic insurgents, many belonging to the Sharia Jamaat group, were involved in the Dagestani jihad.

Main article: October 2005 Nalchik attack

On October 13, 2005, local and Caucasian insurgents organized a daylight raid on Nalchik in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The failed insurrection attempt claimed lives of more than 90 people, including at least 14 civilians, 35 policemen and 41 rebels.

On July 26, 2007, a massive security operation was launched in Ingushetia, sparked by a series of attacks including an assassination attempt on President Murat Zyazikov.[3] Moscow sent in an additional 2,500 MVD troops, almost tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.[4] In the next few days hundreds of men have been rounded up in the sweeps, while several security officers were killed and wounded in the continued attacks.[5] By October 2007, police and security forces in Ingushetia were issued orders to stop informing the media of any "incidents of a terrorist nature."[6]

• January 15, 2005 - Four Russian security commandos and six rebels were left dead from the two apartment sieges in Dagestan.

• February 2, 2005 - Major-General Magomed Omarov, Dagestan's deputy Interior Minister, was assassinated in the regional capital Makhachkala, when rebels ambushed his motorcade and killed him in the shoot-out.

• July 1, 2005 - Eleven commandos from the elite Russian MVD OSNAZ Rus unit were killed and seven wounded in the bomb attack in Makhachkala.

• July 12, 2005 - The Sharia Jamaat group confirmed the death of its commander, Rasul Makasharipov.[7]

• January 2-5 2006 - At least three OMON and Spetznaz servicemen died and more than 10 were wounded in a three-day battle on a mountain near Gimry in Dagestan between some 3,000 Russian troops and a group of estimated eight armed rebels.

• July 10, 2006 - The head of the Russian FSB service, Nikolai Patrushev, announced the death of Shamil Basayev and three other rebels in a "special operation" in Ingushetia.

• August 29, 2006 - A former police chief of an anti-organized crime department in southern Russia was gunned down near a hospital in central Nazran and died at the scene.

• September 11, 2006 - Ossetian Kataib al-Khoul group claimed responsibility for causing a helicopter crash that killed 15 men, including three Russian army generals.[8]

• July 21, 2007 - Gunmen in Ingushetia killed Vakha Vedzizhev, a well-known figure in the republic and an adviser to Ingushetia's president on religious matters.[9]

• August 23, 2007 - At least two OMON policemen and one soldier were killed and 17 troops wounded in two ambushes in Ingushetia and Dagestan.[10]

• September 18, 2007 - Chief Dagestan commander Rappani Khalilov‎ and his right-hand man killed in the 12-hour battle with hundreds of Russian OSNAZ commandos and soldiers.

• Rising violence in Russia's Ingushetia Christian Science Monitor on September 14, 2007