Local jihadists first began disappearing from Russia and the North Caucasus region just months before the opening ceremonies for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. In some cases, human rights groups say, Russian security forces tracked the militants down and dumped their bodies on the side of the road as a warning. In other cases, Muslim fighters were escorted to the border or were allowed to escape house arrest on the condition they leave Russia entirely. Not long after that purge, Russian-speaking fighters began appearing regularly in ISIS propaganda videos. This history is important because Turkish officials say the three suicide bombers who attacked Istanbul's Ataturk Airport last week, killing more than 40 people and wounding hundreds of others, were citizens of Russia and possibly from one of the former Soviet republics. If that proves to be accurate, it would mark the first time ISIS has tapped its Russian-speaking fighters to attack abroad. U.S. counterterrorism officials say it
↧