Two militants who were planning a "large-scale" terrorist attack in Grozny were killed on February 1, a source in the headquarters of the Russian military in Chechnya told RIA-Novosti. According to the source, the militants were under the command of the rebel field commander Doku... MORE

Mokhmad-Amir Mutsaev, a leader of a jamaat (armed underground Islamic group) in the Groznensky district, was killed after offering "armed resistance" to police who were attempting to capture him, Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 29, citing a Chechen Interior Ministry officer. According to the source,... MORE

Citing sources in Kabardino-Balkaria's Interior Ministry, Izvestia on January 31 identified all the gunmen involved in the January 27 shoot-out between security forces and members of the "Yarmuk" Jamaat in Nalchik, the republic's capital. The group's leader, Muslim Ataev, and two other members, Ilyas Bichekuev... MORE

A little known veteran jihadist, Abu Hafs al-Urdani, made a rather dramatic entrance onto the world stage on February 5, 2003, when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell displayed his photo in a speech before the U.N.Security Council. Abu Hafs was identified as part of... MORE

"A striking picture: a black Hummer stops on dirty vacant lot. First, a fighter with a weapon climbs out of it, then Hero of Russia Ramzan Kadyrov with a weapon, then another fighter with a weapon, then suddenly Ksenia Sobchak wearing something airy. Kadyrov is... MORE

Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev appeared in a four-minute video posted on the separatist Kavkazcenter website on February 8 aimed at dispelling speculation that he had been killed. On February 2, the head of the Abkhazia's State Security Service, Mikhail Tarba, referred to rumors that Basaev... MORE

On February 7, just four days after the Chechen separatist Kavkazcenter website reported that Aslan Maskhadov had ordered rebel fighters to lay down their weapons for one month, Kommersant published an interview with the separatist leader. The newspaper reported that it had transmitted its questions... MORE

Reuters on February 6 quoted a source in Chechnya's pro-Moscow police as saying that the ceasefire ordered by separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was holding and that rebel fighters had not attacked Russian forces for three days. On February 3, the separatist Kavkazcenter website reported that... MORE

Researchers from the Memorial human rights center and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) on February 7 presented their findings concerning human rights violations in Chechnya last year. The IHF's Aleksandr Mnatsakanyan said that the human rights situation in the republic has changed... MORE

On February 5, two servicemen were killed in a shoot-out with three militants in Dagestan. The shoot-out occurred as Dagestani OMON police commandos and subunits of the 102nd Brigade of the Russian Interior Ministry's special purpose troops carried out a special operation on the outskirts... MORE