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US trained Tajik colonel becomes top Daesh commander

September 5, 2016 at 1:34 pm

A former Tajikistan Special Forces colonel who was trained by the US has become the top Daesh commander in Iraq a year after he defected from his national duties.

News of his appointment comes days after the US placed a bounty worth $3 million on Gulmurod Khalimov’s head.

Khalimov received military training in the US in 2003, undergoing counter terrorism training. When he defected in May last year, he did so through a video announcement in which he publicly called for violence against Russia, Tajikistan and the United States and encouraged others to join the “caliphate”.