Dzhabrail Yamadayev

Infobox Military Person
name=Dzhabrail Yamadaev


caption=Yamadayev posing with a handgun
born=
died=March 5, 2003
placeofbirth=
placeofdeath=Dyshne-Vedeno, Chechnya
placeofburial=
placeofburial_label=
nickname=
allegiance= (since 1999)
branch= (direct subordination)
serviceyears=
rank=Brigadier General (Ichkeria)
unit=
commands=Special Company Vostok
battles=First Chechen War (separatist side)
Second Chechen War
awards=Hero of the Russian Federation
relations=
laterwork=

Dzhabrail Yamadayev, was a former Chechen rebel field commander during the First Chechen War. He switched sides together with his brothers in 1999 during the outbreak of the Second Chechen War and then became the commander of the Russian special forces unit "Vostok". Yamadayev was assassinated by a bomb blast in March 2003.

Biography

During the First Chechen War the five Yamadayev brothers fought against the Russian troops and enjoyed great influence as field commanders. Dzhabrail held the rank of Ichkerian Brigadier General. [ [http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/articles/2003/6/9/24876.html ”Cleanups”, from Chechnya to Ingushetia] , Prima-News, 9.6.2003]

When the second war in Chechnya broke out in 1999, the Yamadayevs (including Dzhabrail, Sulim and Ruslan) had voluntary defected to Moscow's side. Since then, Dzhabrail became a prominent supporter of Akhmad Kadyrov, leading an elite special force with a core of several dozen of former Ichkerian National Guardsmen, then a company-sized local special unit directly submitted to the General Staff of the Russian Army. He also held position of the deputy military commandant of Chechnya. The guerrillas nicknamed him "Dzhaba" -- which means "toad" in Russian.

Assassination

On March 5 2003, Dzhabrail Yamadayev was killed along with three of his bodyguards in his own house in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno by a bomb planted under a couch that he slept on after returning from a two-day operation in the mountains. The explosion was so powerful that the house was almost completely destroyed. President of Russia Vladimir Putin awarded Dzhabrail a posthumous medal and title of the Hero of the Russian Federation, while Dzabrail's brother Sulim took over his command (which in the fall of 2003 was upgraded to a battalion of the GRU).

According to the 2006 statement by the rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, Ramzan Kadyrov and his father Akhmad were behind the killing of Dzhabrail Yamadayev, and his brother Sulim later killed four of Dzhabrail's personal bodyguards who were involved in his murder. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/chechnya_weekly/article.php?issue_id=3680 SADULAEV: THE RUSSIANS ARE LOSING] , The Jamestown Foundation, April 06, 2006] In May 2008, remains belonging to Vakharsolt Zakayev, a former Vostok officer (platoon leader) who had disappeared about six months after that incident and was assumed to have been executed by his colleagues on suspicion in taking part in assassination, were found in the outskirts of Gudermes. [ [http://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1214902.html Investigation checks possible involvement of "Vostok" battalion in murdering Arsamakov brothers] ] [ [http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000004-000001-000227&lang=1 A parade of corpses before the decisive battle] ]

ee also

*Ruslan Yamadayev
*Sulim Yamadayev

References

External links

* [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-72304623.html Yamadayev Killed] , "The Moscow Times", March 6, 2003