After the death of Muslim Atayev ( Amir Sayfullah ) , Astemirov became the charismatic leader of the Yarmuk Jamaat , and took on the same Islamic nom de guerre as Atayev . Musa Mukozhev ( Amir Abu Muhammad ) continued to be his closest collaborator . In December 2004 , Astemirov gained notoriety when he led a rebel raid against a Federal Drug Control Service ( FSKN ) headquarters in Nalchik , where several of his associates killed four officers , looted the armory and set the building on fire . In May 2005 , Astemirov gave an oath of loyalty to the Chechen separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev ( Sheikh Abdul-Halim ) , and Shamil Basayev nominated him as the military amir ( commander ) of the Kabardino-Balkarian front of the Caucasian Front . In this position , along with Basayev and Ilyas Gorchkhanov , Astemirov was one of the masterminds behind the unsuccessful large-scale raid , in which more than 140 people , mostly alleged insurgents , died in the series of assaults against Russian government building and security forces across Nalchik on 13 – 14 October 2005 . He also publicly promised assassinations of high-ranking officials , businessmen and clergy , and was seen as the key figure behind the January 2008 killing of Anatoly Kyarov , a police official in charge of a special unit that specifically targeted the Yarmuk Jamaat and Astemirov himself
a rebel raid
2004 Nalchik raid
Anzor Astemirov