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New Chechen rebel leader

Moscow: Chechnya's beleaguered separatist movement has appointed an experienced militant commander, Doka Umarov, as its new president following the assassination of his predecessor whose bloodied corpse was put on display in his underpants by pro-Russian forces during the weekend.

Mr. Umarov has strong links to the Beslan mastermind and Russia's ``terrorist number one'' Shamil Basayev. As vice-president of ``Ichkeria'', the separatist movement's name for the once-independent republic of Chechnya, he was automatically elevated to the post of new president upon the death of Abdul-Khalim Saidulayev (39) on Saturday.

A hardened Chechen militant, Umarov has evaded Russian forces for more than 10 years and is thought to have hundreds of fighters at his command.

The appointment came hours after Saidulayev was shot dead by pro-Russian forces in the town of Argun. Saidulayev was a relatively unknown leader who struggled to reclaim the separatist movement's agenda from the radical Islamists that now dominate it.

He took the nominal post of president of the Russian-controlled republic after the assassination of long-term separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov last year.

Russian television celebrated the death, a symbolic blow against militants in the troubled North Caucasus, with the Chechen Prime Minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, posing in combat fatigues over the corpse of Saidulayev.

Tip-off from aide

Mr. Kadyrov grinned when he described how the militant leader was betrayed by ``a close associate.''

``He urgently needed to buy a dose of heroin, so he sold his leader for heroin,'' said Mr. Kadyrov, adding the dose cost 1,500 roubles. ``The terrorists have been virtually beheaded. They have sustained a severe blow, and they are never going to recover from it,'' he added. ``We must decisively end international terrorism in the whole of the North Caucasus.''

Militant website kavkazcenter.com confirmed the death, saying: ``Sheikh Abdul-Halim [Saidulayev] became a jihadi (inshallah) in a fight with Russian infidels and pagans in his home town of Argun.'' —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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