Chechen militant Seiful Islam Shishani, a close associate of Salakhuddin Shishani, has been killed in clashes in Sheikh Maqsoud, a majority Kurdish neighborhood in northern Aleppo.

Updated information in bold.



Seiful Islam was the emir of a maqqar (a group of fighters) in Jaish Usro, the group led by Salakhuddin Shishani. The group has been fighting Kurdish-led forces in Sheikh Maqsoud.

Seiful Islam was 21 and from Grozny in Chechnya. He was 18 when he came to Syria.





He had fought in Syria for three years alongside Salakhuddin, and had been part of the Caucasus Emirate in Syria until he left that group with Salakhuddin some months ago to form Jaish Usro, a Chechen-led group that is predominantly Syrian “ansar” fighters.

In this photo of Jaish Usro, Seiful Islam is sitting next to Salakhuddin, who considered him a “younger brother” although the two are not related:

More photos of Seiful Islam with Salakhuddin: