Strategically, the U.S. still regarded Russia as an adversary. Consequently, U.S. assistance at that

Two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – who are American citizens vacation packages australia but originally  from the southern Russian vacation packages australia province of Dagestan – allegedly exploded two pressure cooker bombs at mid-afternoon just as runners were crossing the finish line on Boylston Street.
The brothers actually were born in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a secular Muslim nation that is home to the Sunni al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, whose forces were thought to have been killed off. However, the movement vacation packages australia is coming back with added strength and uniting with other Sunni terrorist vacation packages australia elements in Central Asia.
The Boston Marathon explosions instantly killed three people and injured more than 265 others. The pressure cooker bombs were based on a recipe taken directly from an al-Qaida bomb-making instruction booklet featured in Inspire, a magazine published by the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The magazine was the inspiration of yet another American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen Sept. 30, 2011.
The concern is so great that the U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory warning U.S. citizens heading to Sochi to attend the Olympics they must remain vigilant and exercise good judgment and discretion when using any form of public transportation.
The advisory warns that the Games present an attractive vacation packages australia target for terrorists. Counterterrorism sources suggest two terror attacks by Chechens in Volgograd, Russia,  last month may have been carried out to test the response.
The North Caucasus Islamic fighters, known as the Caucasus Emirate, seek to establish Islamic caliphates in the region subject to strict vacation packages australia Islamic law. Their efforts reflect potential security threats not only to Russia, where security forces are in a constant battle with North Caucasus militants, but also in Europe and the U.S. itself.
HuT is a pan-Islamic political party founded in Jerusalem in 1953 that operates freely in many parts of the world, including the United States and other Western countries. However, it has been banned in Russia since 2003.
Americans knew virtually nothing of the decades-long conflict in that part of the world, principally against Russia, although it holds worldwide strategic implications as part of al-Qaida s overall effort.
At the time of the Boston Marathon bombing, the leader of the self-styled vacation packages australia Caucasus Emirates, Doku Umarov – a/k/a Emir Dokku Abu Usman – initially disavowed the intention of his Islamic fighters to wage a terrorist war against the United States. He said his group s primary enemy was Russia.
vacation packages australia Russia s crackdown vacation packages australia on jihadists at times has pushed some Muslims toward vacation packages australia Wahhabism, which originated vacation packages australia two centuries ago in of Saudi Arabia. In Russia, vacation packages australia there s a general fear of Islam that has prompted a backlash from Muslims who turn to more extremist vacation packages australia views.
Consequently, young Muslims move toward Wahhabism vacation packages australia or the Hizb ut-Tahrir. According vacation packages australia to experts, Wahhabis vacation packages australia in Russia don t have to try to convert people to their ideology. Instead, the Russian system itself is causing young people to adhere to this strict form of Islam.
Nevertheless, the conflict isn t limited to Russia. Jihadists in the North Caucasus have been increasing in strength and forming ties with Sunni radicals in Central Asia to form a threat that is spreading into all of Russia and Europe.
The North Caucasus region spans southern Russia, mainly comprised of the Russian provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and South Ossetia. They are predominantly Muslim.
But with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechens sought independence from the newly established Russian Federation. Their struggle for independence broke into what is known as the First Chechen War, from December 1994 to August 1996.
Strategically, the U.S. still regarded Russia as an adversary. Consequently, U.S. assistance at that time flowed to the Islamic fighters since their conflict was with Russia. Also, at the time, the Republic of Georgia became a haven for Chechen fighters, with the Russians often coming into Georgia in hot pursuit.
That s when evidence of nuclear and chemical weapons vacation packages australia materials, thought to be left there by the Chechens, vacation packages australia were found in the gorge. Russians, consequently, began to regard the region as a destination for international chemical terrorists.
In the Pankisi Gorge, makeshift laboratories vacation packages australia to produce ricin, a poisonous toxin derived from the castor bean plant, were found. Ricin is the chemical weapon used in Syria by both sides in the country s three-year civil war.
U.S. intelligence found that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who had links with al-Qaida, had operated in the area and along with Chechens was planning poison gas attacks against Russia. Zarqawi was killed in 2006 in Iraq in an attack by U.S. F-16s.
There are groups in the U.S. who back the Chechens fight against Russia, principally because of Moscow s backing of Iran and the general Russophobic thinking that continues to permeate groups said to be affiliated with America s neocons.
Some of these groups include the Caucasus Foundation and the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. There are reports that the older Boston bomber – Dzhokhar – had attended so-called seminars organized in the Republic of Georgia in the summer of 2012 partly by the Caucasus Foundation.
It was similar vacation packages australia to the help the U.S. gave to the mujahidin in Afghanistan that resulted in the ouster of the Soviet military in the early 1980s. Many of those fighters had returned to their homeland vacation packages australia with the prospect of ousting Russian forces from their own predominantly Muslim region and ultimately declare independence.
At the time, Chechens warned Moscow that they had nuclear materials hidden in parks around the city, a strong indication that Chechen terrorists have knowledge of nuclear materials to make dirty bombs.
In October 2002, Chechens assaulted a Moscow theater, taking some 850 hostages. The attack was led by Basayev, who later was to admit that the U.S. secretly helped the Chechens against the Russians. Their demand was the end of the Second Chechen War.
After two and a half days, the Russian Alpha Group, a Spetznaz, or Special Forces, group, pumped chemical agents into the building s ventilation system vacation packages australia and raided it. They killed some 40 attackers but 130 hostages also died.
Now, while the struggle against Russia continues, Chechens have united with Sunni militants in Central Asia and have moved to other Sunni countries and then headed to Syria through Turkey to fight against the Syrian government.
The North Caucasus fighters vacation packages australia see the war against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and as a further attack on Russia because of the Kremlin s support for Assad and Syria s Shiite ally, Iran.
Russia s backing of the Syrian regime vacation packages australia is due to Iran s reciprocity vacation packages australia and Syria s strategic location. In turn, Russia seeks to use Iran s Shiite influence to offset the increasing gains of Sunni fighters in the Central Asian countries and the Caucasus, all of which were once part of the greater Soviet Union.
Russian security forces are particularly concerned, since the Chechens are threatening to launch suicide attacks during the Winter Olympics, in Sochi, only 250 miles from the Muslim provinces of the North Caucasus.
Zawahiri wants not only to form caliphates throughout the regions but to advance a two-pronged approach to jihad, moving in one swath through Russia and in another from the Arab Peninsula, vacation packages australia across North Africa and into the Maghreb.
It is clear that the battle against al-Qaida isn t going to be over any time soon, and the growing prospect of the U.S. seeking to engage Iran could help exacerbate al-Qaida animosity even more against the United States.
Already, the battle lines are being drawn with once close ally Sunni Saudi Arabia – the bastion of Sunni Wahhabi thinking. Disgruntled with U.S. Middle East policy, the Saudis appear to have unleashed their Islamist forces now in Syria.
Even Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, vacation packages australia in a reported recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, showed Riyadh s control not only of the Islamist fighters in Syria but also the Chechens who are fighting there.
He had told Putin that he controlled the Chechens like a light switch and could guarantee Putin that there would be no Chechen attacks during the 2014 Olympics – if Russia would no longer support Syria and Iran.