Chechen Rebel Leader Basayev Reported Killed
10 July 2006
The head of Russia's security agency says Russia's most wanted fugitive, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, has been killed.
Nikolai Petrushev informed President Vladimir Putin that security forces killed Basayev during an overnight operation in the southern republic of Ingushetia. The Petrushev meeting with Mr. Putin was shown on Russian television.
Basayev had claimed responsibility for the 2004 attack on a school in the North Ossetian city of Beslan, a three-day siege in which 330 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed.
It is not clear if the death of Basayev was tied to an earlier report of a truck blast that killed four militants in Ingushetia. Officials say the four died when a truck filled with explosives detonated prematurely before dawn Monday morning near a village, Ekazhevo, in the Nazran district.
Authorities say the explosives and weapons in the truck were meant to be used in a terrorist attack in Russian's North Caucasus region.
Two of the dead militants were identified as close associates of Chechen militant Doku Umarov, who took over as Chechnya's rebel commander last month.
Ingushetia borders on Chechnya where Russian troops have been battling Muslim separatists for more than a decade.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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