Caucasus (training center)

The Kavkaz training center is a sabotage and terrorist center that operated near Serzhen-Yurt ( Shali district of Chechnya ) in 1995-1999 . ^[one]

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev stated: “At the end of the first war, I established Khattab’s camp through the general staff headed by Maskhadov ” ^[2] (Yandarbiyev was the vice president of Ichkeria in 1993–1996 and acting president in 1996–1997). The founder and the permanent head of the center was Khattab . The center was located on the left bank of the Hulhulau River in the premises of the former pioneer camps . ^[one]

Up to 1,000 fighters, who were taught by 40 instructors from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia , were trained there simultaneously . ^[3] Preparation was carried out on a three-month course. ^{[4] [1]} Young people from the North Caucasian republics, as well as Russians, Tatars, Tajiks and even Afghans, were trained. ^[1] The training center had its own mosque, dormitory, hospital, canteen, bakery. ^[five]

Camp funding was well established. The militants were given money by Arab instructors at the very first request ^[6] .

Another training center was located in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia . ^{[7] [8]}

In just five years, about 10,000 militants were trained. ^[one]

Among the well-known pupils are Pavel Kosolapov , a Russian Wahhabi suspected by the FSB of the Russian Federation in organizing a number of terrorist acts in Moscow and the Moscow and Novgorod regions in 2004–2007. ^[9]