|
Russia kills 2 top rebel commanders
Russia has claimed that its troops have killed two rebel commanders who organised the assassination of the pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov in the separatist republic of Chechnya. Moscow did not make it clear how it knew the two Chechens were involved in the attack, which has complicated Russian efforts to end a war launched by President Vladimir Putin in October 1999 and has since degenerated into guerrilla warfare. "We have liquidated the two heads of a rebel group that organised the terrorist attack in the city of Grozny, in the Dinamo stadium, on May 9," said Ilya Shabalkin, a top spokesman for Russia's military operations in Chechnya. "At this time... we are continuing our hunt for other members of the group that also took part in this attack," he said. The rebel Internet site Kavkaz Centre appeared to brush aside claims that the rebels killed were responsible in the attack, and it is impossible to independently confirm if the Russian statement is true. "The occupiers... have not clarified how they know that these were the Mujahedin fighters - out of the hundreds who operate in Dzhohhar [the separatists' name for the capital Grozny], were the ones who successfully organised the successful attack to eliminate Kadyrov," the separatist report said. Elections to replace Mr Kadyrov have been set for October 29, although no candidate has yet officially emerged in a race that Moscow analysts fear may be mired by violence. The rebels have made an official statement that they may forward their own candidate in the race - another direct challenge to Putin's claim that Moscow has managed to stamp its control over the Caucasus region. Moscow has named Ramzan as deputy head of the Chechen government in apparent hope that he could keep control over the republic, with Moscow having few candidates it can rely on to run the republic. But a firefight between Russian interior ministry troops and Moscow-recruited Chechen police at one of the checkpoints that dot the republic seems evidence that Moscow's worries are coming true. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-05-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=33844 |