Who confirm what we already know about the Chechens, they are ruthless jihadists.
Via ABC News:
For the last 12 years, U.S. Special Operations forces have repeatedly engaged in fierce combat in Afghanistan against ruthless Taliban allies from Chechnya, who have the same pedigree as their terrorist brethren threatening to disrupt the Winter Olympics in Russia, current and former commandos tell ABC News.
“I’d say Chechens were a fair percentage of the overall enemy population early in Operation Enduring Freedom,” recalled an active-duty senior Special Operations officer, referring to the Pentagon’s name for the Afghan war, in which he was among the first ground operatives.
Since the U.S. war in Afghanistan began after September 11, elite U.S. troops’ border battles with Chechen jihadis based in Pakistan’s tribal safe havens have mostly stayed hidden in the shadows of a clandestine conflict. Special Operations missions are classified secret by default and rarely publicized.
Chechens joining the Taliban and al Qaeda-aligned militias stood out for their ferocity and refusal to surrender, operators with considerable experience in eastern Afghanistan revealed in recent interviews.
“Chechens are a different breed,” a Special Forces soldier who has fought them told ABC News.
“They fight till they die. They have more passion, more discipline and less regard for lives,” said the soldier, who did ten tours hunting high-value targets in Afghanistan. “A few of them could have just given up but decided they needed to die.”
As recently as two years ago, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan reported that scores of foreign fighters including Arabs and Chechens were killed in one major battle with U.S. forces along the border with Pakistan.