BRIEFS

–MORE VIOLENCE IN DAGESTAN

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry reported on July 28 that three militants were killed and two police officers wounded during a raid on an apartment in Makhachkala, Itar-Tass reported. The news agency reported that grenade explosions and sub-machinegun fire could be heard at the site of the raid. The Sharia Jamaat confirmed in a message posted on the Kavkazcenter website on July 30 that three of its men became “martyrs while defending a mujahideen base in Shamilka (Makhachkala) on 28 July.” The group claimed that “mujahideen killed two infidels from a special rapid-reaction unit of the bandit formations and wounded five infidels” during the battle. Also on July 28, five policemen in Makhachkala were slightly injured in an attempted bombing of their vehicle. Interfax reported on July 27 that two soldiers were killed and one injured when a mortar shell hit a military base in Dagestan’s Tsumadinsky district. Also on July 27, Reuters reported that a colonel from the Interior Ministry forces trying to stop rebels from crossing over from Chechnya died from wounds sustained in a late-night firefight in Khasavyurt.

–PUTIN DEMANDS PROGRESS IN ZNAMENSKOE PROBE

President Vladimir Putin demanded during an August 1 cabinet meeting that the probe into the July 19 car bomb explosion in the Chechen village of Znamenskoe be completed, ordering Interior Minister Rashid Nugaliev to report on the investigation’s progress. Nurgaliev told Putin that three suspects had been detained and that the third suspect, who was detained on July 31, was cooperating with investigators, RIA Novosti reported. Kommersant reported on August 2 that the third suspect, Ayub Tuntaev, had told investigators that Shamil Basaev ordered the bombing, which killed 14 people – ten policemen, one FSB officer and three civilians, including two adolescents. A group calling itself the “Ibadullakh” (Servants of Allah) Sabotage Group and identifying itself as part of Shamil Basaev’s Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs claimed responsibility for the Znamenskoe attack (see Chechnya Weekly, July 27).