Akhmed Chatayev, a member of the Islamic State (IS) suspected of organising the deadly 2016 Istanbul Airport attack, blew up himself during the counterterrorist operation in Tbilisi’s Gabriel Salosi Street on 21–22 November, the State Security Service (SSG) has confirmed.
Two other suspects killed during the siege have not yet been identified, and the investigation is proceeding to identify any connection with other ‘criminal groups’, the SSG said.
In a briefing on 1 December, SSG spokesperson Nino Giorgobiani said their counterterrorism department was negotiating the groups surrender when they refused and opened fire.
‘As a result of a 20-hour-long special operation, two criminals were killed and one, Akhmed Chatayev, blew himself up. Unfortunately one of our colleagues died. Two SSG members and two Interior Ministry members were wounded’, Giorgobiani said.
She denied media reports that two of the suspects had managed to escape, as well as reports that Adam Gumashvili, an IS member who is reported to be fighting in Syria, was among the dead.
On 27 October, the Tbilisi Court of Appeals confirmed to the media that the person arrested prior to the siege is Saedi Dudayev, a relative of the owner of the flat where the counterterrorist operation took place.
‘None of the dead had identification documents on them. The identification process proceeds’, she noted.
Chatayev was wounded and detained during the 2012 ‘Lopota Incident’ in eastern Georgia, which left at least 11 Chechen militants and three members of the State Security Services dead. Details of what the militants were doing on Georgian territory are still not clear, and Chatayev was subsequently released.
Several Georgian media outlets have cited evidence from the official investigation into the shooting of 19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili by the security services suggesting he had links to terrorists. Rights group EMC has accused the authorities of conducting an ‘information war’ against Temirlan, who the Machalikashvili family insists was innocent.
On Sunday, TV Imedi’s Imedis Kvira programme claimed to have obtained a deleted WhatsApp conversation, evidence from the investigation, bet
On 22 November, in a special operation in Tbilisi, Georgian special services liquidated an armed group which included Akhmed Chatayev, also known as ‘one-handed Akhmed’. Chatayev was considered one of the leaders of the Islamic State. During the battle with Georgian special services he refused to disarm, and committed suicide by detonating a grenade. This is, perhaps, everything that is known from official sources about the operation in the Georgian capital, which lasted for almost a day.
Akhmed Chatayev, the Islamic State leader killed during the 21–22 November anti-terrorist operation in Tbilisi, did not enter Georgia through a border checkpoint, the head of the Georgian State Security Service (SSG) Vakhtang Gomelauri announced on 5 December. Gomelauri also told journalists that members of his group acquired their weapons from a hiding place located in a forest.
Gomelauri declined to reveal which country Chatayev and his associates crossed from, ‘due to the ongoing inv
Akhmed Chatayev, a member of the Islamic State (IS) suspected of organising the deadly 2016 Istanbul Airport attack, blew up himself during the counterterrorist operation in Tbilisi’s Gabriel Salosi Street on 21–22 November, the State Security Service (SSG) has confirmed. 
