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Just retribution for Beslan, says Putin

Vladimir Radyuhin

Chechnya's most feared warlord killed

MOSCOW: Russia's most wanted Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was killed in a special forces operation in the early hours of Monday, the security service chief said.

Basayev was killed along with a number of other militants in Ingushetia, a region neighbouring Chechnya, using information received by Russian secret services outside the country, the head of Federal Security Service, Alexander Patrushev, reported to President Vladimir Putin in televised remarks.

Mr. Patrushev said Basayev was planning a terrorist attack in Ingushetia "to bring political pressure on Russia during the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg" during the coming weekend.

Security sources in Chechnya said Basayev was killed when an explosives-packed truck was blown up near the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia. He was in one of three cars that accompanied the truck. Trucks loaded with explosives have been regularly used by rebels to attack Government and security headquarters in Chechnya.

The elimination of Basayev came three weeks after Chechen rebel "President" Abdul Khalim Saidullayev was killed. Warlord Doku Umarov, who took over from Saidullayev, appointed Basayev "Vice-President".

Daring raid

Basayev was responsible for most major rebel attacks in Chechnya and other regions of Russia, including a daring raid on a hospital in Budyonovsk in 1995 and the September 2004 attack on a school in Beslan, in which 331 hostages were killed.

"This is deserved retribution against the bandits for our children in Beslan, in Budyonovsk, for all these acts of terror they committed in Moscow and other Russian regions, including Ingushetia and Chechnya," Mr. Putin said commenting on the killing of Basayev.

AP reports:

The Interfax news agency cited Ingush Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev as saying that Basayev's body had been identified ``through some of the fragments, including his head''.

Interfax later quoted the Federal Security Service headquarters as saying that 12 rebels had been killed in addition to Basayev. When Russian troops pulled out in 1996 and Chechnya prepared to elect a "President" to lead it to de facto independence, Basayev ran for the post.

He lost to the late rebel commander Aslan Maskhadov and became his deputy. While Maskhadov was regarded as comparatively moderate, Basayev became an adherent of the Wahhabi sect of Islam which has its roots in Saudi Arabia.

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