The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 13, 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) released via Al-Hayat Media a seven-minute video titled "Uncovering An Enemy Within." The video presents segments from the confessions of two men whom ISIS says were spies working for the Russian intelligence services (the FSB). The men are executed at the end of the video by a young Kazakh boy.
The first individual is identified as Mamayev Jambulat Yesenjanovich from Kazakhstan, who says that he worked on behalf of the FSB. Yesenjanovich names one "Katsenko Aleksey" as his coordinator. When asked about the reasons he did his work, Yesenjanovich says that "they [i.e. the FSB] threatened me." Speaking about his mission, Yesenjanovich says that he was tasked with several things: getting close to a certain individual (the video is muted when the person's name is mentioned) for the purpose of sending information about him back to the FSB; gathering information about Russian fighters within ISIS; and obtaining information from the computer of one individual in Turkey (the video is muted again when the person's name is mentioned) via USB flash drive. Yesenjanovich says that he spent time in Turkey for his mission, where he met other agents. He also says that at one point he lived there in an apartment next to the Grand Mosque in Istanbul along with two other men, one from Karachay (i.e. Karachay-Cherkess Republic) and another from Turkey.
Mamayev Jambulat Yesenjanovich
The second individual appearing in the video is identified as Ashimov Sergey Nikolayavich, who says that prior to arriving to the Islamic State he worked "for eight months in the Russian intelligence against the Muslims." Nikolayavich names one "Ildar" as his coordinator. Nikolayavich's mission included sending information about ISIS's fighters in Syria, as well as locating the residence of one of ISIS's leaders (the audio is muted when that person's name in mentioned) for the purpose of assassinating him. Nikolayavich acknowledges that his actions against ISIS constitute apostasy (he says that he was a Muslim). He also directs a message to other spies, informing them to "repent to Allah now before it's too late."
Ashimov Sergey Nikolayavich
The video then shows Yesenjanovich and Nikolayavich kneeling down at an undisclosed location in the open. An ISIS fighter addresses in Russian the circumstances that led to the men's capture, as well as their forthcoming fate. A young child who is holding a handgun is seen standing at the fighter's side. He is identified from a previous ISIS video that focused on the training of Kazakh children within ISIS.[1] The child then executes the men by shooting them from behind, one of them several times. The child is then seen proudly raising his gun in the air while smiling, while a caption reads: "Honor stands firmly in the land of the caliphate, above the corpses of disbelief that lay humiliated under the feet of these young mujahideen. The examples of Mu'adh and Mu'awwadh[2] resonate in their hearts, fueling an unyielding fervor to inflict death upon the enemies of Allah…"
Boy executing the two men
Source: Twitter.com/Al_Fateh182, January 13, 2015.
Endnotes:
[1] See MEMRI JTTM report Report on ISIS Fighters from Kazakhstan Shows Children Training with Weapons, November 23, 2014.
[2] According to one narration, Mu'adh and Mu'awwadh were two teenagers who lived during the time of prophet Muhammad. The two killed a man who insulted Muhammad.
