Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus

The Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus refers to the involvement of ISIS and its affiliates in the region, where local militant groups pledged allegiance to the organization and engaged in attacks aimed at destabilizing Russia's North Caucasus republics, Georgia, and Azerbaijan to create an Islamic Caliphate.

Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus
Part of the Russo-Caucasian conflict, post-Soviet conflicts, War against the Islamic State and the aftermath of the insurgency in the North Caucasus
Fire of the "Crocus City Hall" building after the terrorist attack perpetrated by the Islamic State
Date 21 November 2017 – present (7 years, 9 months and 6 days) Location North Caucasus, Russia (with spillover in other Russian territories), northern Azerbaijan and Georgia Status Ongoing as a hit-and-run campaign
Belligerents
Russia Chechnya Dagestan Ingushetia Kabardino-Balkaria Kalmykia Karachay-Cherkessia North Ossetia–Alania Adygea Krasnodar Krai Rostov Oblast Stavropol Krai Volgograd Oblast Moscow Oblast Moscow Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Azerbaijan Qusar District Georgia Adjara Tbilisi	Islamic State Caucasus Province Khorasan Province[1] Azerbaijan Province al-Qaeda Imam Shamil Battalion (2017-2019) Other Islamist groups and lone wolves
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Putin Mikhail Mishustin Andrey Belousov Valery Gerasimov Alexander Bortnikov Viktor Zolotov Vladimir Kolokoltsev Ramzan Kadyrov Sergey Melikov Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov Kazbek Kokov Batu Khasikov Rashid Temrezov Sergey Menyaylo Murat Kumpilov Veniamin Kondratyev Vasily Golubev Vladimir Vladimirov Andrey Bocharov Andrey Vorobyov Sergey Sobyanin Gleb Nikitin Former Dmitry Medvedev Sergei Shoigu Vladimir Vasilyev Yunus-bek Yevkurov Yury Kokov Aleksey Orlov Vyacheslav Bitarov Ilham Aliyev Mehriban Aliyeva Ali Asadov Zakir Hasanov Karim Valiyev Ali Naghiyev Shahin Mammadov Vilayat Eyvazov Shair Alkhasov Mikheil Kavelashvili Irakli Kobakhidze Irakli Chikovani Giorgi Matiashvili Vakhtang Gomelauri Grigol Liluashvili Tornike Rizhvadze Kakha Kaladze	Akhmed Chatayev † Aslan Byutukayev † Yunus Khabibov †[2] Amirkhan Gurazhev †[3] Adam Ozdoev Abdulloh[4] Akhmed Tsechoev †[5][6] Shamil Aliyev †[7] Sirozhiddin Mukhtarov (POW)[8] 3 unnamed criminal group leaders †[9][10][11] Islamic State caliphs Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (since 2023) Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi (2022–2023; killed in Syria) Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2022; killed in Syria) Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2019–2022; killed in Syria) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (until 2019; killed in Syria)
Units involved
Federal Security Service National Guard of Russia Police of Russia State Security Service Internal Troops of Azerbaijan Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia State Security Service of Georgia	Military of the Islamic State
Casualties and losses
53 Russian security forces killed, 115 wounded[a] 7 Azeri soldiers killed, 1+ wounded[32] 1 Georgian soldier killed, 4 wounded	219 jihadists killed, 4 wounded (in Russia)[b] 1 killed (in Azerbaijan)[41] 3 killed, 7 arrested (in Georgia)

History

From 2015, during the Insurgency in the North Caucasus, after the series of killings of leaders of the Caucasus Emirate by the Russian army between 2013 and 2014, they led to the weakening of the terrorist organization, leaving several members of IS, veterans of the Syrian Civil War and the Civil War in Iraq, founded a Province of IS in the North Caucasus.^[42] On 23 June 2015, IS's spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani accepted these pledges and announced the creation of a new Wilayah, or Province, covering the North Caucasus region. Adnani named Asildarov as the IS leader of this area and called on other militants in the region to follow him.^[43][44]

The first attack of the group occurred on a Russian military base in southern Dagestan on 2 September 2015.^[45] In a video also released in September, Asildarov called on IS supporters in the Caucasus to join the fight there, rather than travel to Iraq and Syria.^[46]

From 2015 to 2017, the group made other attacks on civilians and the security fources, causing more than 180 deaths.^[47] By the end of 2017, a lot of the subversive and terrorist groups operating in North Caucasus were eliminated and the insurgency in the North Caucasus was officially declared over on 19 December of the same year, when FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov announced the final elimination of the insurgent underground in the North Caucasus.^[48][49]

2018

After this, the Caucasus Emirate and the IS Caucasus Province were disbanded, leaving a lot of underground groups to continue the insurgency. From the end of the insurgency in the North Caucasus, one of the most violent terrorist attack perpetrated by the Islamic State in Russia was the mass shooting into a church in Kizlyar on 18 February 2018 causing six deaths (including the perpetrator) and 4 injuries.^[50]

On 21 April 2018, in a clash between Russian security forces and IS, nine IS militants were killed in Dagestan.^[51]

On 20 August 2018, IS launched attacks in Chechnya, injuring a number of policemen; five suspected IS members were killed.^[52]

On 31 December 2018, an apartment block collapse in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The collapse, claimed by IS-CP but later denied, killed 39 people and injured 17 more.^[53]

2019

On 24 January 2019, IS attacked a police post, leaving four IS members killed and one policeman injured in Kabardino-Balkaria.^[54]

On 1 July 2019, IS claimed responsibility for an attack on a police officer at a checkpoint in the Achkhoy-Martonovsky district of Chechnya, who was stabbed to death. The attacker was shot and killed as he threw a grenade at other officers.^[55]

2021-2023

On 20 January 2021, Aslan Byutukayev, also known as Emir Khamzat and Abubakar, a Chechen insurgent commander of the Islamic State, was killed alongside five other IS militants in a special operation launched by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya in Katyr-Yurt, Chechnya; four soldiers were injured.^[56] The regime of counter-terrorist operations (CTO), a special legal regime that is applied in Russia in case of terrorist threats, began in Ingushetia from 3 April 2023 due to attacks by IS jihadists against Russian security forces.^[57] The clashes resulted in 5 deaths, three Russian soldiers and two jihadists, 11 wounded Russian soldiers and two captured jihadists.^[58]

2024

Two of the alleged perpetrators of the Crocus City Hall attack during the escape, captured by public CCTV^[59]

On 2 March 2024, six gunmen and a civilian, along with 3 policemen injureds, were killed in a shoot-out with the police in Karabulak in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. The Russian authorities claimed that the men were associated with the Islamic State.^[60][61]

On 22 March 2024, four Tajik IS–K gunmen launched an attack on a concert hall and shopping mall in Krasnogorsk, Russia, with rifles and incendiaries, killing 149 and marking the group's first attack beyond Afghanistan's neighbors.^[62][63]

On 22 April 2024, suspected IS gunmen attacked a Russian police patrol in the town of Karachayevsk in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, killing 2 police officers and wounding a third, in addition to seizing their service weapons (a pistol andifle) and some ammunition.^[64]

On 28 April 2024, suspected IS gunmen attacked a Russian police post in the village of Mara-Ayagy of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, driving up to the police post before throwing explosives and opening fire, killing 2 police officer and wounding at least 4 others. All of the attackers were allegedly killed during the attack.^[65]

On 16 June 2024, six Islamic State-linked detainees abducted two Russian prison staff at a detention centre in Rostov. Five assailants were later shot dead by Russian security forces and one was captured. The two prison staff were freed.^[66][67]

On 23 June 2024, at least five suspected Islamic militants carried out a series of coordinated attacks targeting a church and synagogue in Dagestan, killing 17 police officers and five civilians before being killed.^[68] Two sons and a nephew of Magomed Omarov, the head of Dagestan's Sergokalinsky District, were identified as some of the perpetrators.^[69]

On 23 August 2024, four Islamic State-linked prisoners took over the Surovikino penal colony in Volgograd Oblast killing nine prison staff. The prisoners took hostages and demanded a ransom from the Russian state. Forces of the Russian national guard were deployed and all four prisoners were shot dead by Russian snipers.^[70][71]

On 3 September 2024, a man with a screwdriver attacked traffic police inspectors at the entrance to Magas, the capital of Ingushetia. One inspector was wounded; the attacker was shot dead.^[72]

On 30 September 2024, Russian security forces have conducted an operation to detain residents of Ingushetia who, according to the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service), had been preparing sabotage acts at energy facilities and attacks on law enforcers. Seven suspects were detained, while the eighth one offered armed resistance and was shot dead.^[73]

On 11 October 2024, in Ingushetia, one policeman and two of his relatives were killed in a car shelling. The car in which the attackers were traveling was found burned in North Ossetia.^[74]

On 24 October 2024, in Grozny, Chechnya, a surprise attack by militants killed one Russian soldier and injured another.^[75]

On 27 December 2024, Russian FSB security forces raided an apartment in Moscow, killing two ISKP members from Central Asia who were preparing to launch a bombing attack on a Russian police station. Handguns, grenades and bomb making equipment were also seized in the raid.^[40]

2025

On 3 March 2025, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) thwart a series of terrorist attacks on the Moscow metro and a Jewish religious institution in the Moscow region. The man accused of planning the attacks was killed in a confrontation with security forces.^[76]

On 5 March 2025, Russian counter-terrorism forces killed four ISIS-K affiliated militants who were plotting an attack against a regional branch of the interior ministry in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan.^[77]

On 24 April 2025, an armed militant was killed and four others were arrested after local law enforcement foiled an attempted bombing attack on a Russian police station in Derbent, Dagestan.^[78]

Also on 24 April 2025, Russian FSB officers shot and killed two Central Asian militants after foiling a drone attack on a petrochemical facility in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.^[78]

On 5 May 2025, three Dagestani police officers and two gunmen were killed in a shootout in Makhachkala. The attack occurred after authorities attempted to pull over the car the gunmen were driving.^[31]

On 29 May 2025, the deputy mayor of the city of Stavropol and another man were killed by the explosion of an IED in a terrorist attack.^[79]

On 4 July 2025, at Nalchik Islamic State militants ambushed with knives police officers, injuring one; one of the attackers was killed while the other arrested.^[80]

On 4 August 2025, A terrorist attack was foiled by security forces in Kabardino-Balkaria; three Islamic State militants were killed.^[81]

Spillover in Georgia

Georgia, a mainly Christian country, has not had many jihadist-related incidents in recent years, correspondents say. But it is estimated that about 50 Georgians have fought alongside the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.^[82]

On 22 November 2017, three suspected militants of IS, were killed in a raid on a flat/apartment in Tbilisi, Georgia. The raid killed 3 IS Militants, and arrested one, while SSSG suffered 4 wounded men, and later 1 death in a hospital. According to the Georgian security officials, the group planned to carry out terror attacks against foreign diplomatic missions in Georgia and Turkey.^[83]

In May 2022, Tbilisi City Court convicted five individuals who had been arrested in August 2021 for membership in IS and plans to travel to a terrorist camp in Syria. In December, State Security Service of Georgia detained Tsiskara Tokhosashvili, the brother of IS commander Tsezar Tokhosashvili, on charges of joining IS and assisting terrorist activities in Syria and Iraq.^[84]

In late 2022, the Georgian State Security Service on Thursday announced the arrest of a member of the Islamic State terrorist organisation at Tbilisi International Airport by its Counter-Terrorism Centre. His younger brother Tsezar Tokhosashvili, known as Al-bara Shishani, was arrested in a joint special operation in Kyiv, Ukraine in November 2019 and was extradited to Georgia the following year. Wanted through an Interpol red notice on terrorism charges, he also joined IS in 2015.^[85]

On 6 June 2024, the Georgian State Security Service detained and arrested two militants affiliated with IS along with a cache of weapons in the city of Batumi.^[86]

On 20 February 2025, the Security Service of Georgia conducted operations against militants affiliated with IS. As a result RG-42 grenades, F-1 grenades, explosives, detonators, UZRGM fuzes, AK-74 Bakelite magazines and 5.45x39mm ammunition was captured from the raid.^[87]

Spillover in Azerbaijan

On 2 July 2019, as part of a series of videos showing supporters and fighters of IS around the world renewing their pledge of allegiance to IS, a video was published from Azerbaijan featuring three fighters armed with Kalashnikov style rifles pledging their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The video was formally released by IS, without explicitly referring it to a Wilayah.^[88]

4 months later, after al-Baghdadi's death on 27 October 2019, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi received pledges of allegiance (bayah) from various provinces and regions, with photos of fighters from Azerbaijan pledging allegiance to him, on 29 November.^[89]

On 19 September, 2024, the Islamic State claimed its first-ever attack in Azerbaijan, via its weekly Al-Naba newsletter, claiming to have killed 7 Azeri security personnel and wounded 1 in a clash in Qusar district, Northern Azerbaijan, five days prior; one IS militant was killed.^[90][41]

Human rights violations

The rebels have committed extensive war crimes, targeting and murdering civilians on many occasions during the insurgency. ^[91] The Russian government also perpetrated war crimes. On 21 January 2023, a man died in Makhachkala, shortly after being detained by police, killed by policemen during interrogation over an armed conflict in Makhachkala.^[92] A short video on Telegram allegedly showed one of the Crocus City attackers being tortured by FSB agents, who cut off his ear and forced him to eat it.^[93]

List of clashes in the North Caucasus

• List of clashes in the North Caucasus in 2018
• List of clashes in the North Caucasus in 2019

Casualties

Year	Killed	Injured	Ref.
2017	5	18	[33][94]
2018	82	26	[12]
2019	32	13	[13][14][15][16]
2020	45	11	[34][17][18][19]
2021	20	10	[20][35][36][37]
2022	6	0	[38][21]
2023	15	13	[22][23][24]
2024	231	670+	[25][26][27][1][29][39][30][40][41]
2025	19	5	[22][23][24][78][31]
Total	457	770+

See also

• Insurgency in the North Caucasus
• Islamic State insurgency in Iraq (2017–present)

Notes

1. 7 killed and 23 wounded in 2018,^[12] 4 killed and 10 wounded in 2019,^{[13][14][15][16]} 4 killed and 11 wounded in 2020,^[17][18][19] 8 wounded in 2021,^[20] 1 killed in 2022,^[21] 3 killed and 11 wounded in 2023,^[22][23][24] 31 killed and 24 wounded in 2024^{[25][26][27][28][29][30]} 3 killed and 1 injured in 2025^[31]
2. 1 killed in 2017,^[33] 65 killed in 2018,^[12] 26 killed and 1 wounded in 2019,^{[13][14][15][16]} 41 killed in 2020,^{[34][17][18][19]} 19 killed and 1 wounded in 2021,^{[20][35][36][37]} 5 killed in 2022,^[38][21] 12 killed and 1 wounded in 2023,^[22][23][24] 36 killed and 1 wounded in 2024^{[25][26][27][1][39][30][40]}14 killed in 2025^[1][31]