Former Soviet Republics Become Allies. They hunted Abu Ayat for more than a year, and while it might not seem that hard to catch up with a one-legged man, he eluded all pursuers. U.S. intelligence agencies and their allies in the Caucasus region tracked him from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, where he and other Arab militants had taken refuge alongside Chechen guerrillas for years, according to Georgian and U.S. officials. They followed the trail across the rugged Caucasus Mountains. Finally, in September 2003, they cornered him and two dozen guards in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The unheralded capture of Abu Ayat, who intelligence agencies say was an al Qaeda commander, was a small chapter in the U.S. war against groups it designates as terrorist, a conflict played out not just in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia but, with little publicity, across the former Soviet Union. Full Story
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