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The White Arab is dead
 Russian forces killed an alleged top associate to the Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev in the Ingush city of Nazran, the Russian Federal Security Service said. Shamil Basayev's associate Akhmed Sambiyev was killed in Ingushetia, a spokesman for the PR group of the Ingush department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said. Akhmed Sambiyev, also known as the "White Arab," was "eliminated" late Thursday after fighting with police and security service officers in Ingushetia, a southern Russian region bordering Chechnya, said Yuri Smolyaninov, a representative of the Ingush branch of the security service. Smolyaninov also said that three security officers were injured during the raid in the Ingush city of Nazran. He added that Sambiyev's wife and children were not hurt and that his driver was arrested. The ITAR-Tass news agency said that Sambivev was either a Syrian or a Turkish citizen. It also added that Sambiyev replaced Abu Kuteib, Basayev's aide who was allegedly killed in July. Smolyaninov said that Sambivev was an explosives expert and that he had close ties to global terrorist groups.In other developments, a Russian reconnaissance team killed an alleged rebel and detained two others during a raid in the Chechen capital Grozny, a Russian police officer in Chechnya said. Another suspect was killed during clashes between Russian security forces and an armed group in a village near the Chechen-Ingush border, Interfax news agency said. In a separate operation, Chechen security forces released a kidnapped Russian serviceman, Alexei Polyansky, Russian Interior Troops spokesman, said. The soldier was abducted last Monday in Grozny. His captors demanded a $5,000 ransom, Polyansky said. On Friday, Interior Troops' commander Nikolai Rogozhkin said that Russia isn't planning to reduce its nearly 23,000-strong contingent in Chechnya in "the foreseeable future." Russian officials have said previously that about 70,000 forces are stationed in Chechnya. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-11-28 |
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