From Toronto to Dagestan; Canadian jihadi draws parallels with Tsarnaev

By Maria Golovnina

UTAMYSH, Dagestan, Russia (Reuters) - A mess of rubble, ash and charred vehicles is all that's left at the desolate farmhouse where a Canadian Muslim convert died fighting his last battle alongside Islamist insurgents in the Russian region of Dagestan.

At the time, few people beyond local villagers noticed William Plotnikov's death in a region where skirmishes occur daily. But almost a year on, Plotnikov has emerged into the limelight following the Boston Marathon bombings.

The abrupt transformation of a Russian émigré into a die-hard rebel fighter draws eerie parallels with the life of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the son of Chechen immigrants in the United States who is now prime suspect in the Boston attack.

In the village of Utamysh, a collection of squat houses in a valley ringed by the steep mountains of Dagestan, Plotnikov is known simply as "Kanadets" - or the Canadian.

"The Canadian, I saw him twice, yes. He came to the mosque. He looked like everyone else," Arslangerey-haji, a local imam, said at his small village mosque.

"He'd just pray and leave. He was out with the others in the forest," he added, using a local euphemism for joining the militants fighting Russian rule of the North Caucasus.

On July 14, 2012, Russian forces surrounded the rebels near Utamysh and pounded them with artillery. Part of the farm where Plotnikov and his fellow fighters were hiding was reduced to rubble. At least seven people including Plotnikov were killed.

Since last month's Boston bombings, attention has turned to others who may have followed similar lives to Tsarnaev. Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper and Canada's National Post have reported in detail on the last years of Plotnikov.

An ethnic Russian who emigrated to Toronto with his parents as a teenager in 2005, Plotnikov converted to Islam as a young man and flew to Dagestan to join the Islamist militants.

There is no evidence Plotnikov knew Tsarnaev but some similarities are striking. Both were young men when they plunged into Islam, possibly out of frustration with the challenges of their adopted home countries, and both were passionate boxers.

Plotnikov's bemused father, Vitaly, described how his son changed from a typical teenager who borrowed his father's credit card to go ski-ing to someone devoted to prayer. "Somebody changed his mind in Canada," he told CBC TV. He said he thought Tsarnaev had had the "same problem".

Both Plotnikov and Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan in the first half of 2012 to explore their religion. They lived within 120 km (75 miles) of each other on the Caspian Sea coast.

U.S. investigators suspect Tsarnaev's experience in Dagestan played an important role in his radicalization, particularly if they establish that he met any militants during his stay at his family home in the regional capital of Makhachkala.

While Tsarnaev was with his parents, Plotnikov joined the insurgency and retreated to the rebel camp with other militants in the lush mountains south of Makhachkala, where he died.

Tsarnaev left Dagestan in a rush two days after Plotnikov's death, and flew back to the United States via Moscow, according to Novaya Gazeta. He was shot dead by police nine months later, after the Boston bombings which killed 3 people and wounded 264.

SIMPLE GRAVE

Tucked away in a remote corner of Utamysh cemetery and overgrown with weeds, Plotnikov's grave is a simple white tombstone featuring the Islamic crescent moon and star. The Russian inscription says: "Plotnikov Vilyam Vitalievich". Date of birth: May 3, 1989. He was 23 when he died.

In a village like Utamysh, news travels fast. The arrival of new faces never escapes notice. Yet, when asked about Tsarnaev, villagers shook their heads and said they had never heard of him visiting their lands.

"They are both dead now. Maybe they knew each other. Who knows?" Dzhamaludin Aliyev, the village head, said with a shrug as he gazed at Plotnikov's tombstone.

"We just buried him here as a Muslim. He did not live here. He lived up there in the forest," he added, pointing at a green hill towering over the village.

Salaat, a local pensioner, said the fair-skinned ethnic Russian Canadian stood out immediately as soon as he came to the village, home to about 3,000 people.

"He came here after hooking up with some Utamysh youngsters in another village up north," she said. "He lived here for several months with them, then he disappeared into the forest."

Foreigners are rarely spotted fighting for rebels in the Caucasus, just as ethnic Russians rarely convert to Islam.

Yet, as conflicts continue in the Caucasus, nationalist claims to independence that dominated the 1990s have given way to calls for a pan-Caucasus Islamic state - including from people who went to fight in countries such Afghanistan and Syria, or those who simply view Russian rule as corrupt and oppressive.

No one knows for sure how many militants are out in the mountains but most are now believed to be based in Dagestan, particularly in the south where Utamysh is located.

For locals in Utamysh, last year's farmhouse battle was the closest the conflict had struck their homeland in many years after a period of relative peace.

Aliyev said the insurgents' bodies were initially taken to Makhachkala as part of the investigation.

But Vitaly Plotnikov, who lives in Toronto, flew to Dagestan immediately afterwards and brought the body back to the village, seeking permission to bury him there, Aliyev said.

"I don't know why he didn't take the body to Canada. I guess it's expensive. So he brought the body back here," Aliyev said. "The father just said to me: 'I should've looked after him better'. For him it was a huge tragedy."

Dzhalil Alatsiyev, deputy head of the local administration in charge of security, said the insurgents had been under surveillance by Russia's FSB security forces for several months.

"They never came to the village. They were hiding there," he said, pointing at the mountain range.

Describing the insurgents as Wahhabis - or adherents to one of the most austere forms of Islam, he added: "It's easy to tell them apart. They have long beards. They pray differently. We are all Muslim here. But these people are different."

The farmhouse is now deserted. Its owner has been jailed for helping the insurgents. One shed was flattened entirely by artillery fire. The main building was heavily damaged, its interior a mess of broken glass, metal and camouflage jackets.

SECURITY HEADACHE

For Moscow, Dagestan - one of the poorest and most ethnically diverse places in Russia - is a huge headache.

Its forces are still struggling to quell persistent attacks by Islamist militants more than a decade after Moscow fought two separatist wars in the adjacent republic of Chechnya.

Although it is firmly under Moscow control, Dagestan has a long history of resistance to Russian rule. Many harbor resentment against Russian security forces' heavy-handed tactics against suspected militants and their families.

Their feelings go back centuries. The valley around Utamysh was the site of fierce battles between local tribes and Russian forces sent by Peter the Great to annex Dagestan during a war with Persia in the early 18th century.

Today, speaking up for the insurgents can land people in jail. Yet even in this village, dominated by people from the Kumyk Turkic-speaking ethnic minority, some appear sympathetic.

Rashiya-hanum Adykova, a 56-year-old who runs a dairy farm high up in the hills, said she had seen militants pass through her fields but they never touched her family. "They don't do anything to us because we are just old people," she said.

The village imam said he disapproved of the tactics used against the insurgents.

"A lot of people are innocent but they are still being taken away," said Arslangerey-haji. "If they are criminals of course they should be arrested. But there is a lot of chaos here. Everyday someone is dying. We are tired of it."

(Additional reporting by Janet Guttsman in Toronto; editing by David Stamp)

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Syrian, Iraqi jihadi groups said to be cooperating

BAGHDAD (AP) — The wounded Syrian government troops were returning to their country in trucks escorted by Iraqi soldiers. They'd almost reached the border, near the frontier town of Akashat, when the attackers struck.

Regional intelligence officials saw the March 4 ambush, which left 48 dead, as evidence of a growing, cross-border alliance between two powerful Islamic extremist groups — al-Qaida in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front in Syria. Nusra Front is the most effective rebel faction fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, and the U.S. designates both Sunni jihadi groups as terrorist organizations.

Iraqi intelligence officials say the burgeoning cooperation is pumping new life into the Sunni insurgency in their country. They point to nearly 20 car bombings and suicide attacks that killed over 65 people, mostly in Baghdad, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last month.

The alliance is also nurturing Nusra Front, which emerged as an offshoot of Iraq's al-Qaida branch in mid-2012 to battle Assad's regime as one of a patchwork of disparate rebel groups in Syria. Nusra Front's presence on the battlefield complicates desperately needed international support for Syrian rebels because foreign backers do not want to bolster Islamic extremist groups.

Two Iraqi intelligence officials said the cooperation reflected in the attack on the wounded Syrian troops prompted their government to request U.S. drone strikes against the fighters. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to reporters about the subject.

A U.S. official confirmed that elements within the Iraqi government had inquired about drone strikes. But the official said the U.S. was waiting to respond until the top level of Iraqi leadership makes a formal request, which has not happened yet.

Iraq is also turning elsewhere for assistance. Ministry of Defense spokesman Staff Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said that in Iraq's last weapons deal with Russia, Baghdad requested aircraft and heavy weapons to try to seize control of the Iraqi-Syria border region where the groups are operating.

The two Iraqi intelligence officials said the jihadi groups are sharing three military training compounds, logistics, intelligence and weapons as they grow in strength around the Syria-Iraq border, particularly in a sprawling region called al-Jazeera, which they are trying to turn into a border sanctuary they can both exploit. It could serve as a base of operations to strike either side of the border.

"We are very concerned about the security situation in Iraq," said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Moussawi. He said Iraqi ground troops and the country's tiny air force were unable to quell the militant activity in the border zone.

"This area is a nest of terrorist cells," he said.

A Jordanian counterterrorism official said al-Qaida in Iraq was assisting Nusra Front "with all possible means, including weapons, fighters and training."

Another regional security analyst cited the attack on the wounded Syrian troops in Iraq as decisive proof of cooperation.

"This is operational collaboration," the analyst said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "The transfer of weapons, tactics and ideas, what they call complex suicide attacks."

Iraq and Syria's other neighbors, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel, all fear the spillover effects of the 2-year-old civil war. Iraq, Lebanon and Syria all share a similar, fragile ethnic mix and the concern is that the conflict could cause sectarian warfare between Sunnis and Shiites to spread throughout the region.

Under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government, already tense relations with minority Sunnis have worsened. There are also longstanding strains between Arabs and Kurds, who control their own autonomous region in Iraq's north.

In Syria, Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and his security forces are heavily stocked by fellow Alawites and Shiites. But Alawites are a minority, and the opposition fighting him is predominantly made up of majority Sunnis.

Shiite-dominated Iran and Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon are Syria's two closest allies in the Mideast.

Iraq pledged on Friday that it would conduct more searches of Syria-bound planes and vehicles, days after visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked al-Maliki to stop shipments of Iranian weapons and fighters through Iraqi territory to help Assad's regime.

But al-Moussawi also pointedly noted that Iraq would try to halt weapons shipments to rebels.

Nusra Front's role in Syria's civil war is troubling not only for Iraq but for international supporters of the Syrian opposition as well.

Since it emerged in mid-2012, it has transformed into the most potent fighting force among rebel groups, with a strong presence in the eastern provinces of Raqqa, Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh close to the Iraqi border.

The group has claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest suicide bombings against the regime and military facilities. Its success has led to popularity among fighting groups, though a source of friction with more moderate and secular brigades in Syria. Nusra Front has complicated the fractured Syrian opposition's cause and remains a chief reason the U.S. has been reluctant to arm the Syrian rebels.

Intelligence officials estimated last month that about 750 Nusra Front militants — including foreign fighters from other Arab countries — were among approximately 2,000 anti-Assad fighters who control long stretches of borderlands on the Syrian side. The officials said the Syrian militants were increasingly crossing into Iraq to meet their al-Qaida counterparts.

They mostly operate from the al-Jazeera region that straddles three provinces of western Iraq. The region abuts part of the porous, 375-mile border, composed of desert valleys, orchards and oases.

Their cooperation with al-Qaida intensified when Nusra Front seized control of two border crossings between Syria and Iraq, freeing up space for the militants to operate, the Iraqi intelligence officials said.

The rebels seized the Rabia-Yarubiya crossing in March and the al-Qaim crossing in September, according to a report on Nusra Front by the U.K.-based Quilliam Foundation. One crossing still remains in Syrian hands — the Walid-Tanf post near where the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi borders intersect.

Government spokesman al-Moussawi and Jassim al-Halbousi, a provincial council member in Iraq's Anbar province, also confirmed the two groups were using "nests" — Arabic slang for small bases — in the area.

"This battle has two directions, from Syria to Iraq and from Iraq to Syria," said analyst Mustafa Alani of the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center.

The Jordanian counter-terrorism official said al-Qaida in Iraq was also providing "expertise and logistics" to the Nusra Front.

"During training, Nusra elements are taught how to fire rockets and machine guns, maneuver in the desert terrain and handle arms supply to its in-the-field fighters," he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He said the training is conducted in "temporary camps in a no-man's land along the Syrian-Iraqi border." After training sessions, the camp is usually dismantled so as not to leave traces behind.

"It's natural for al-Qaida to help another group with a similar ideology," he said. "The aim is to control the street in Syria as a step toward toppling Assad and setting up an Islamic jihadi state there."

According to the Iraqi officials, the group is helping al-Qaida expand in western Iraq and conduct high-profile attacks against mostly Shiite targets.

A wave of daring and coordinated strikes in March led intelligence officials to conclude that al-Qaida militants had strengthened their weapons-smuggling networks as well as their ability to find volunteers and carry out attacks.

They said the surge was caused by increased cooperation with Nusra Front fighters who appear to have facilitated the flow of suicide bombers, weapons and explosives into Iraq.

The ambush on the wounded Syrian troops only strengthened the notion of cooperation. An intelligence official said attackers appeared to have been tipped off.

The soldiers were making their way back to Syria in an Iraqi-escorted convey traveling hundreds of miles westward.

The assault began with militants detonating explosive charges on the military escort vehicles assigned to protect trucks carrying the Syrian soldiers, al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a statement posted on its website after the attack.

After that, "the fighters launched an attack from two directions using light- and medium-range weapons as well as rocket-propelled grenades," it said. "Within less than half an hour, the whole convoy ... was annihilated."

U.S. and Iraqi forces had mostly quelled al-Qaida's presence in Iraq before American troops withdrew in late 2011. But by September 2012, Iraqi intelligence officials were warning that al-Qaida was regrouping, seizing on regional instability and government security failures to regain strength.

They reported at the time that fighters linked to al-Qaida were crossing into Syria to battle the Assad regime. Since then, those fighters have strengthened the al-Jazeera area into what they hope will be a haven to battle their foes, intelligence officials said.

"For these guys," said the regional security analyst, "the border between Iraq and Syria is not even a real thing."

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With reporting by Jamal Halaby in Amman, Zeina Karam in Jordan and Lara Jakes in Washington. Follow Hadid on twitter.com/diaahadid

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