A Chechen rebel commander was arrested with explosives near the southern Russian city where a suicide bomber earlier this month killed 46 people on a commuter train, the Federal Security Service said Friday. Authorities captured Ibrahim Israpilov Tuesday near Yessentuki with 44 pounds of explosives, radio-controlled detonators, grenades and firearms, the intelligence service, known as the FSB, told Russian news agencies.
| Betcha Ibrahim is feeling mighty unhappy at this very moment... |
The head of the security service, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Russian TV that Israpilov is a suspect in attacks on the rail line, but he did not say whether authorities believe the Chechen commander is suspected in the Dec. 5 suicide bombing of the train. In September, six people were killed in two blasts on the same railway line in southern Russia, near the separatist region of Chechnya. In the latest fighting inside Chechnya, five Russian soldiers died and 13 were injured in rebel attacks and mine explosions over the previous day, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Friday. |