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Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, one of Russia's most wanted men, has died, a Chechen jihadist website said Tuesday, according to CNN.

The Kavkaz Center website said Umarov would be replaced as leader of the Islamist group Caucasus Emirate by Ali Abu Mohammed.

Umarov's forces have claimed responsibility for several deadly bombings, including in Moscow. His death has been reported several times by the Kremlin-backed leader of the Chechnya region, but never before by Umarov's sympathizers.

The report of Umarov's death has not been independently confirmed.

The website did not say when or how Umarov had died. It called him "a martyr."

The Caucasus Emirate, or Imarat Kavkaz, has its roots in the 1990s Chechen insurgency.

Umarov, a former Chechen rebel who embraced the jihadist goal of establishing a caliphate, united local militant groups in the Chechnya, Dagestan and other North Caucasus provinces under his command in 2007.

His Caucasus Emirate group said it was behind deadly bombings at a Moscow airport in 2011 and on the Moscow subway in 2010.

Umarov, who styled himself as the emir of the Caucasus Emirate, had called on his followers to do what they could to disrupt last month's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

He claimed the Games were being held on the graves of Muslim occupants of Sochi, who he said were driven out by Russian imperial forces in the 19th century.