Chechen militant threatens Turkey after killings

The Chechen militant blamed for deadly attacks in Moscow has threatened Turkey with retaliation after the killings of a number of Caucasus militants on Turkish soil.

Doku Umarov, who has survived numerous attempts on his life by Russia, said the militants were killed by Russian agents whose activities had been deliberately tolerated by the Turkish secret services.

In September, three Caucasus men were shot outside a mosque in Istanbul. Russian investigators later said two of them were Chechens and suspects in the deadly bombing of a Moscow airport this year.

"If you do not take measures then with the help of Allah we will take the necessary measures, there can be no doubt of that!" said Umarov, addressing the Turkish people and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"If we take measures in response, then Russia will never plan a murder of even one more person from the Caucasus on your soil," he added in the video posted late Sunday on the Kavkaz Center website which serves as a mouthpiece of the Caucasus militants.

Umarov, dressed in camouflage clothing and sitting next to a fellow militant, indicated in the video that Russian secret agents had entered Turkey disguised as tourists or with the help of Turkish construction companies.

He said their weapons were delivered into the country in Russian diplomatic bags.

Umarov, who leads the Caucasus Emirate group that wants to set up a breakaway Islamic state in the Russian Caucasus, claimed responsibility for the Moscow airport bombing that killed 37 people in January and a 2010 twin suicide bombing that killed 40 on the Moscow metro.