In 1999, an Islamist group from Chechnya, led by Shamil Basayev and Ibn Al-Khattab, launched a military invasion of Dagestan, with the aim of creating an "independent Islamic State of Dagestan". The invaders were driven back to Chechnya by the Russian military. In retaliation, Russian forces reinvaded Chechnya later that year. Dagestan underwent a rise in Islamic militancy in the early 2000s. Violence in the Republic occurred in 2010-2012. This upsurge led some people to fear that Dagestan was about to enter into a sectarian civil war. Dagestan became the epicenter of violence in the North Caucasus with Makhachkala, Kaspiisk, Derbent, Khasavyurt, Kizlyar, Sergokala, Untsukul, and Tsumada all becoming hotbeds of militant unrest.