BRIEFS

–FEDERAL TROOPS KILLED IN CHECHNYA

An improvised explosive device killed an Interior Ministry serviceman who was on patrol in Grozny’s Staropromyslovsky district, a Chechen law enforcement source told Interfax on November 3. The source also reported that a rebel fighter had been captured in a wooded area on the outskirts of Urus-Martan. Radio Liberty reported on November 2 that a column of military vehicles was fired on in the Vedeno district, as a result of which two servicemen were killed and three wounded. RIA Novosti reported on October 31 that two Interior Ministry soldiers were killed and two were wounded during a special operation in southeast Chechnya. A local police official said militants had opened fire on the soldiers during an operation to apprehend them. Utro.ru reported on October 28 that a land mine planted on a roadside in Grozny detonated as an engineer reconnaissance convoy was driving past, wounding three servicemen. Interfax reported on October 27 that a sergeant from the 42nd Motor-Rifle Division was killed during a routine mine-clearing operation in the Itum-Kale district.

–REBEL EMIR KILLED IN DAGESTAN

Interfax reported on November 3 that a man believed to be “a prominent leader of illegal armed groups in northern Dagestan,” Makhach Mamashev, was killed in a clash with security forces in Khasavyurt. According to the news agency, Mamashev was the so-called emir of the Khasavyurt district and belonged to an illegal armed unit led by prominent Dagestani warlord Rappani Khalilov, who is suspected of masterminding a number of terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus. According to the police, Mamashev was involved in armed raids on the Chechen villages of Ishkhoi-Yurt and Avtury and a series of attacks on police officers in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district.

–MASKHADOV: KILLED BY HIS NEPHEW?

Kommersant reported on October 28 that forensic experts had extracted a bullet from the head of Aslan Maskhadov that had been fired from a pistol belonging to his nephew and bodyguard, Viskhan Khadzhimuratov. The results of ballistic tests were read out on October 27 at the trial of four of Maskhadov’s former associates. As MosNews noted, Khadzhimuratov himself said that he did not remember if he had shot Maskhadov, but admitted that Maskhadov had asked him to kill him if capture seemed inevitable, and that he kept the gun ready for that purpose. “Uncle always told me to shoot him if he was wounded and they attempted to take him prisoner,” Khadzhimuratov said. “He said that if he was taken prisoner they would taunt him as they taunted Saddam Hussein.”