The Pentagon confirmed that Islamic State commander Omar Shishani, known as "Omar the Chechen", has been killed in Syria by a U.S. air strike.

In 2013, Thomas Dworzak documented the daily life in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, where "Omar the Chechen" was from, including pictures of his father. Ethnic Chechen Georgians and Chechen refugees live together in the Pankisi Gorge's villages, which have seen an increase of “Wahhabi Islam” in the recent years, despite the fact a majority of the population practice traditional Chechen Islam.