Target: Umarov - World at War

Most challenging to play: Russians [Allied] against Chechens [Japanese]. Conditions: Normal. Size: Medium.

Background: November 23, 2006. Yandi Kotar, near the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia.

Doku Umarov, one of the last senior leaders of the Chechen jihad, fought the Russians in Chechnya during the start of the fighting in 1994. He rose through the ranks to become the southwestern field commander of the Chechen resistance and Vice President of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria.

In late 2006, the Russian Army launched a major operation in search of the Chechen leader. Large numbers of Russian troops, including Spetsnaz forces and Chechen police, surrounded Umarov and his forces in a forest near the village of Yandi-Katar on the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya. Russian artillery and helicopters pounded the area and although Umarov was wounded during the engagement, he managed to escape the encirclement.

Umarov then spent the winter months travelling across the mountains to the nearby republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. There he met with local jamaats fighting Russian authorities in the region and consolidated the Caucasian Front, the rebel movement set up by the late President Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev.