after the withdrawal of russian forces from chechnya most of the mujahideen decided to remain in the country, including khattab who married a woman from dagestan. in 1999, foreign fighters played an important role in the war of dagestan. shamil basayev and khattab had created the islamic international peacekeeping brigade which was composed of chechen arab and dagestani fighters. the invasion was started in support of the islamic djamaat of dagestan separatist rebels. after the battle they retreated back into chechnya. the incursion provided the new russian government with a pretext for intervention and in december 1999 russian ground forces invaded chechnya again.