 According to the investigation, the ambush was conducted by a multinational fighting group that was led by a Saudi-born Arab field commander known as Abu Quteiba and belonged to the Islamic International Brigade forces of Amir Ibn Khattab.It was composed mostly of men hailing from the "Wahhabi" Dagestani village of Karamakhi, which has declared self-rule in the late 1990s and was destroyed by federal troops during a crackdown on Islamic separatism in the republic in 1999.Seven suspected former members of this formation (including four former residents of Karamakhi and natives of Tatarstan and Karachay-Cherkessia) were later arrested and tried together by Dagestan's Supreme Court.