Rebel leader calls for jihad across Russia

Russia’s chief Islamist rebel released a new video today, calling on Muslims across the country to take up jihad against Russians.

“Jihad has become necessary for all of us,” Doku Umarov says, standing outside dressed in white camouflage. “I call on you to activate jihad against the enemies of Allah.”

He names various republics of the Caucasus, as well as republics in the Russian heartland like Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, calling on their mainly Muslim populations to rise up against Russians. “We are one umma (community),” he says. “If today, Muslims are being killed in the Caucasus, it becomes jihad for you too.”

“A total war is in progress, fight the enemy where ever you can,” he says.

Umarov has taken responsibility for the bombings of the Moscow metro last year and of Domodedovo airport in January, and recently released a video promising to make 2011 a year of “blood and tears.”

Watch the new video below: