Some law enforcement agencies disputed Tuesday that federal troops had killed the man believed to be a leader of last week’s attacks in Ingushetia, saying a militant was slain but not the senior fighter whom authorities sought. Authorities claimed Monday that Magomed Yevloyev, known as Magas, had been killed when he put up armed resistance to Ingush and federal troops trying to seize him. Yevloyev, 32, was believed to be the leader of the strict Wahhabi sect of Muslims in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya. Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, the spokesman for federal forces in Chechnya, told Interfax on Tuesday that he had "no doubt" that special forces had killed the right man, saying other reports "don’t correspond to reality." But acting Ingush Interior Minister Beslan Khamkhoyev said "to put it simply, it was not that Yevloyev" who was killed, Interfax reported.
| "Now we think it was some guy named Herb. Or Wally..." |
"The person who killed was a member of a militant group and a relative of Magomed Yevloyev," Khamkhoyev said. The man killed had participated in the attacks in Ingushetia, but "he was not the head." "Do you even know how many Magomed Yevloyevs there are in Ingushetia?" an unidentified Federal Security Service official was quoted by Interfax as saying. "It is a very popular last name. We know of at least seven." The FSB official said the man killed had participated in the Ingush raid. |