Muslim Separatists Kill Vladikavkaz Mayor

Vladikavkaz is the capital of North Ossetia. A group called Kataib al-Khoul (Jama'at Kata'ib al-Hawl ) claimed responsibility on the Kavkaz website of the Chechen rebels. This is the name of the Ossetian Muslim guerrillas. Considering that Ossetia is majority Christian, I can't understand their agenda , which is an Islamic Republic in a place where the population is 70% Christian.

North Ossetia is the Russian republic in the North Caucasus where the Beslan Massacre occurred. There have been some bombings there lately, and there was a suicide bombing at a bus stop by a Muslim woman that killed 12 people.

This popular post of mine goes into the Beslan Massacre and some of the ethnic issues that seemed to drive it.

In short, there are conflicts between the Ossetians and the Ingush. The Ingush were expelled by Stalin in 1944, and 1/3 of them died. When they came back in the mid-1950's, Ossetians had taken much of their land. Also, North Ossetians for the most part back the genocidal war that Russia has waged on the Chechen people.

The war in the Caucasus is not over at all, and has actually been spreading. The situation in Ingushetia is now being described by experts as "full-scale civil war." Heavy fighting is still ongoing in Chechnya, and the situation in Dagestan is spinning out of control. There is also low level fighting in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria.

It would be best if Chechnya and any other Muslim republics in the Caucasus were simply granted independence. Why Russia wishes to hang on to these problematic Muslims is beyond me.

The Russian imperialists and their backers regard this as a war between Western civilization and fundamentalist Islam. Nonsense. It is simply a separatist rebellion by some nations who wish to separate themselves from the Russian Empire into which they were forced after decades of war and have never really agreed to join.