 | Lemme guess! Samoans? Esquimeaux? |
Authorities have detained 15 foreigners in Chechnya, most of them citizens of former Soviet Muslim republics, military officials said Tuesday.
| Ahah! Udmurts! I knew it all the time! |
The detained foreigners were mostly citizens of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and Ukraine whose visas had expired or who hadn't properly registered with authorities, said Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for Russian troops in Chechnya. Shabalkin also said none of the detained could explain what they were doing in Chechnya, raising suspicions of their collaboration with Chechen rebels.
| "Doing here? Why, I don't know! I went to sleep on the bus, see? And when I woke up, here I was!" |
He added that several wounded rebels have been illegally taken for treatment to Crimea in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Chechen police detained two suspected rebels and confiscated their weapons, the Interfax news agency reported, citing acting Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov. One of the men had been on the wanted list as an aide to radical Islamic warlord Shamil Basayev, who has taken responsibility for a series of devastating terrorist attacks. |