| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russian special forces kill latest Khasavyurt emir in Dagestan |
| 2006-05-22 |
| Special forces killed two rebels on Sunday in the southern Russian region of Dagestan after a firefight lasting several hours, police said. Three policemen were injured in an attack on the house in the town of Khasavyurt in western Dagestan, in which the gunmen had blockaded themselves earlier on Sunday, said Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy police chief of southern Russia. "One of the two gunmen were killed included Bulat Abdullayev, who was recently proclaimed the amir (warlord) of the Khasavyurt district," he told reporters in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala. "This amir is responsible for at least 10 grave crimes." Police used an armoured personnel carrier to quell the rebels' fire, Solodovnikov said. The two had been killed after the private two-storey house in which they had barricaded themselves was set ablaze. Blasts were heard inside, he said. Gun battles are common in Dagestan, a patchwork of ethnic groups and powerful clans bordering Chechnya, where separatist guerrillas have fought Russian rule for more than a decade. A policeman and two rebels were killed and at least nine other people were injured last Tuesday in a similar battle in Kizilyurt, a town northwest of the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala. A day later, seven people, including a top local policeman, were killed when a car exploded in Chechnya's other neighbour, Ingushetia. Rebels, often acting on a host of local and religious grievances, have increasingly taken up arms against local officials in Dagestan. Russian officials blame the violence on Islamic militants and organised criminals. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |