Militants in series of attacks on police in Chechnya as strongman leader away for pilgrimage

Islamic State claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against police officers in Chechnya that appeared to have been coordinated while the former warlord-turned strongman Ramzan Kadyrov was on a visit to Saudi Arabia.

The Chechen leader, a former separatist turned Putin ally, was on his way to the hajj pilgrimage while three attacks, including a suicide bombing, took place. The attacks come a year after several police officers were killed in the southern Russian republic.

Investigators said two attackers, armed with knives broke through the block-post of the local police station in Shalinsky district, near Grozny at 10.30am local time. Two police officers were injured before the attackers were killed.

Almost simultaneously a suicide bomber triggered an explosive in Mesker-Yurt village, also in the Shalinsky district. Authorities said that no-one was hurt. The suicide bomber reportedly survived and was recovering in hospital.

Meanwhile a Mercedes car without number plates tried to break through the police headquarters in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Russian media reported that three police officers were injured, needing hospital treatment.

Russian media gave conflicting reports about this accident, with some suggesting that the car was carrying explosives in its boot. A driver was accompanied by a 15-year old passenger, TASS reported, citing police sources. The driver was killed by police.

Mr Kadyrov said on his Telegram messaging account that an attack was carried out by young people "brainwashed by Iblis followers, using social media". The Chechen leader often uses the Islamic word Iblis, which means Devil to describe the members of the Isis.

Mr Kadyrov also said that the situation in Chechen republic is "calm and stabile". He added that the attackers who were trying to disrupt the up-coming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The attacks were the first since a base of the Federal National Guard paramilitary police was attacked by the group of armed militants March 2017. The attackers killed six soldiers and injured three others. Isis took responsibility.

Mr Kadyrov, a 41-year-old former separatist fighter who went over to the Kremlin in 2000, has ruled Chechnya since 2005 and is known to be a bitter enemy of Isis and other radical groups in the Middle East. Once a local leader, he has turned himself into President Vladimir Putin’s unofficial Middle East envoy, attempting to negotiate the future of Syria and Libya with regional leaders.

The attacks appeared to take advantage of the absence of Mr Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya with an iron fist and maintains tight control of security services, including the police.

Teodor Karasik, senior expert from Washington based Gulf State Analytics told The Telegraph that the violence  in chechnya has been building for the past few weeks.

"Various tiap or clans are struggling against each other under Kadyrov's rule because of the nature of politics in the caucuses. Naturally Kadyrov will blame Islamic State for any attacks within Chechnya but the larger issue of social cultural activity in the Republic is increasingly getting violent when mixed with the political situation in the Greater Northern caucuses."