Atayev led a group of an estimated 20-30 volunteers from Kabardino-Balkaria in the Ruslan Gelayev-led field force that crossed back into the North Caucasus republics in the autumn of 2002.
After fighting in Ingushetia, Atayev led the KBR guerrillas back into their home republic, creating the Kabardino-Balkarian Islamic Jamaat Yarmuk in August 2004 as a local independent militant operational group.
The mothers of both Atayev and his wife Katsieva told the Institute for War and Peace Reporting that they did not have a son but an 8-month-old baby girl named Leila, and that they haven't seen her since.
Atayev's mother said her son and daughter-in-law had telephoned relatives during the siege, on the night before the final assault, to say the baby was with them but they hoped they would be allowed to pass her out through the door before any attack took place.
[2][failed verification] An IWPR correspondent observed the January 27 assault from 100 metres away, and witnessed special forces carrying a stretcher on which there was something wrapped in white material out of the besieged building an hour and a half before the end of the operation.