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Friday, Jan 28, 2005

International

International

Islamists killed in Russian raid

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JAN. 27. Russian commando forces stormed an apartment block in the south of the country, killing seven militants, including the leader of a local Islamist group, officials said.

The operation was launched on Thursday morning after an overnight siege of a four-storeyed apartment house in Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, where the Islamists had holed up. All residents had been evacuated from the house prior to the assault in which two commandoes were slightly injured. The killed militants reportedly belonged to a local extremist group, Yarmuk Jamaat, which authorities blamed for a December attack on the local anti-drug agency, when four policemen were killed and many weapons seized. The group is part of a radical Islamist network linked to Chechen rebels. The leader of Yarmuk Jamaat, Muslim Atayev, and his wife, were identified among the bodies of the seven dead militants found in the house. Today's raid was part of a planned clampdown on the Islamists in the North Caucasus that has been under way for over a month now.

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