Abu Omar al-Shishani

Tarkhan Batirashvili Тархан Батирашвили
Personal details
Born	Infobox Military Person 1986 Birkiani, Soviet Union (now Georgia)
Died	Infobox Military Person
Resting place	Infobox Military Person
Parent	Infobox Military Person
Military service
Allegiance	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (2013-2013) Muhajireen Brigade (2012-2013) Georgian Armed Forces (2006-2010)
Commands	Northern Sector, Syria
Battles/wars	Syrian Civil War Russia-Georgia War (2008) Second Chechen War

Tarkhan Batirashvili, more commonly known as Abu Omar al-Shishani or Omar al-Chechen, is a Mujahid Emir (commander) fighting in Syria. Formerly the leader of the Muhajireen Brigade and later Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, Batirashvili was named commander of the northern sector of Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the summer of 2013. Units under his command have participated in major assaults against Syrian military bases in and around Aleppo, including the capture of Menagh Airbase in August 2013. He is considered "one of the most influential military leaders of the Syrian opposition forces."

Early Life

An ethnic Chechen, Batirashvili was born in the village of Birkiani, located in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, in 1986. Pankisi was a major transit point for rebels participating in the Second Chechen War, and according to his father Temuri, a young Tarkhan secretly helped Chechen militants into Russia and sometimes joined them on missions against Russian-backed troops.

Military Service

Following high school, Batirashvili joined the Georgian Army and distinguished himself as master of various weaponry and maps, according to his former commander Malkhaz Topuria, who recruited him into a special reconnaissance group. He rose to the rank of sergeant in a newly-formed intelligence unit, and during the 2008 Russia-Georgia War he served near the front line, spying on Russian tank columns and relaying their coordinates to Georgian artillery units.

Batirashvili was never decorated for his military service, and in 2010 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After being hospitalized for several months, he was released and deemed unfit for the military and discharged. Upon returning home, he was unable to secure work on the local police force and became "very disillusioned," according to his father.

Militant Activity

The Georgian Defense Ministry says Batirashvili was arrested in September 2010 for illegally harboring weapons, and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was allegedly released after serving about 16 months in early 2012 and immediately left the country. According to an interview on a jihadi website, Batirashvili said that prison transformed him. "I promised God that if I come out of prison alive, I'll go fight jihad for the sake of God," he said.

Batirashvili reportedly told his father he was leaving for Istanbul, where members of the Chechen diaspora were ready to recruit him to lead fighters inside war-ravaged Syria- the same place an older brother had already gone months before. In an interview, Shishani said that he had considered going to Yemen and briefly lived in Egypt before ultimately arriving in Syria in March 2012.

His first command was the Mujaharin Brigade, an Islamist jihadist group made up of foreign fighters that was formed in summer 2012. His unit became involved in the Battle of Aleppo, and in October 2012 they assisted the Al-Nusra Front in a raid on an air defense and Scud missile base in Aleppo.

In December 2012, they fought alongside Al-Nusra Front during the overrunning of the Sheikh Suleiman Army base in Western Aleppo. In February 2013, together with the Tawhid Brigades and the Al-Nusra Front, they stormed the base of the Syrian military's 80th Regiment near the main airport in Aleppo.

In March 2013, Kavkaz Center reported that the Kataeb al-Muhajireen merged with two Syrian Jihadist groups called Jaish Muhammad and Kataeb Khattab, to form a new group called Jaish Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or Army of Emigrants and Helpers. The group's leadership structure consists of a military leadership, a Shari’a committee, a Shura council and a media arm, Liwa al-Mujahideen al-Ilami. The latter is the same name as a media group established by foreign mujahideen fighting in the Bosnian war.

The group played a key role in the August 2013 capture of Menagh Air Base, culminating with a VBIED driven by two of their members killing and wounding many of the last remaining Syrian Armed Forces defenders. A branch of the Muhajireen brigades were involved with the 2013 Latakia offensive.

In August 2013, Batirashvili released a statement announcing the expulsion of one of his commanders, Emir Seifullah, and 27 of his men from the group. Batirashvili accused the men of embezzlement and of stirring up the animosity of local Syrians against the foreign fighters by indulging in takfir against other Muslims.

In late 2013, Batirashvili was replaced as leader of the group by another Chechen commander known as Salahuddin, as most of the Chechen members of the group did not support Batirashvili's oath of allegience to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant due to their preexisting oath to Dokka Umarov of the Caucasus Emirate.