After the collapse of the USSR, many of these countries received assistance and copious funds from the United States, which also sent highly specialized military personnel to train the 'OMON' units.
Now, the US nightmare has become reality. A former commander of the special forces of Tajikistan, trained by the Americans (the level is that of the SWAT with unconventional guerrilla tactics of the Green Berets), in a recent video published on Youtube, stated that he had reached Syria to fight among the ranks of the Islamic State.
Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, commander of the OMON unit in Tajikistan, had disappeared in late April. The country's authorities also ordered extensive research to find it, fearing possible retaliation against the man who had served his country so well.
Khalimov reappeared a few hours ago, promising to bring jihad to Russia and the United States. In the high-definition video lasting about ten minutes, the man carries a sniper rifle and speaks quietly in front of the camera, surrounded by some men (twelve other 'OMON' elements would have decided to marry the cause of the Isis).
The former commander of the special wards, asks all jihadists to take up arms in Tajikistan and fight against the policies of a government that does not allow 'namaz' (canonical prayer) or to wear Islamic clothes.
Khalimov speaks to the Russians first. "Listen, dogs. If only you knew how many kids, how many of my brothers are ready to wage a war to restore sharia in your land. You could not even imagine how many we are ”.
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Then the warning to the Americans "Listen, you American pigs. I have been to America three times and have seen how you train to kill Muslims. If God wants, I will come with my sniper rifle and sow panic in your cities, in your homes, I will make a massacre ”.
Usual rhetoric of terrorists?
Of course, it is. There are all the elements of radical fundamentalist prose. What is worrying is the awareness of a man trained at the highest level by the Americans themselves.
The last part of the statements represent the terror for the USA. "I will show you how grateful I am for training me. You trained me to be a chosen item. You have given us millions of dollars in equipment (Khalimov talks about bulletproof vests, special helmets, masks, visors and latest-generation weapons), you have invested your resources to make us experts in anti-terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Your ambassador to Tajikistan, in the 2013, proudly boasted my 'OMON' unit calling it the best response to terrorism. Well, I was the commander and I will use the skills you gave me to massacre you ".
Khalimov's unit was certainly trained by the US Special Weapons And Tactics. As we know, SWAT carries out anti-terrorism operations, riot control with specific training in the "close quarters combat". It is easy to hypothesize, however, that Khalimov and his men were also trained to be an emergency response force and for particular profiles of missions that, in theory, should be conducted by special army departments.
More details are beginning to leak. What to all intents and purposes is a crazed cell, it was also trained for a certain period by the American company "Blackwater", the main contractor for the US government in Iraq and in the former Soviet republics (the company is now known as Academi).
Forty-year-old Khalimov, although Moscow has not yet confirmed, would also have been trained by Russian special units. We know that the Russians maintain a powerful military base in Tajikistan, defined a few weeks ago by Moscow as "an outpost against the spread of terrorism".
Russia, like the US, has provided assistance to the country, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and conducted intense military exercises, including war games. Paradoxically, the last exercise foresaw a simulated resistance against a terrorist attack from Afghanistan.
About 4000 would be fighters from Central Asia, consecrated to the Islamic State, but Colonel Khalimov is a very special deserter: a distinguished official responsible for defending his country from terrorists.
Poverty is often cited as a factor of radicalization for the recruits of the Islamic State, but the case of Khalimov demonstrates a different dynamic: a repressed religiosity, but growing among the Tajiks of all classes, including the elite.
Franco Iacch
