AMMAN, Jordan, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- As Islamic militants escalate their war against the Russians in Dagestan, Ingushetia and other Caucasian republics, there is evidence that Arab jihadists, particularly Jordanians, are playing a leading role, as they did in the Chechen wars.
In recent months, Jordanian newspapers and Web sites have reported the death of several Jordanians fighting in Chechnya.
But it is the growing links between the Islamist fighters in the Caucasus and influential clerics in the Hashemite Kingdom and its environs who preach global jihad that are probably more important.
The well-known Jordanian jihadist ideologue Sheik Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi has gathered a following among the Caucasian Islamists, even corresponding with Arabic-speaking commanders who want to shift the conflict from a nationalist struggle into part of the global jihad.
Maqdisi is a powerful influence in Arab jihadist circles and since 2009 "has become an active promoter and propagandist of the jihadist movement in the North Caucasus," says Murad Batal al-Shishani of the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank that tracks global terrorism.
Maqdisi achieved notoriety as the spiritual mentor of the ferocious al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zaraqwi.
UPI
