Briefs

– Astemirov Named Acting Head of Rebel Sharia Court

The separatist Chechenpress news agency on September 8 published several decrees by Dokku Umarov, Chechen rebel leader and president of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, including two that dismissed the chairman of the Ichkerian Supreme Sharia Court, Mansur Yovmirzaev, and appointed Anzor Astemirov as the court’s acting chairman. Astemirov is the leader of the rebels in Kabardino-Balkaria.

– Bombs Go Off in Nalchik

Newsru.com reported on September 12 that an explosive device went off at a bus stop in downtown Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, late in the evening on September 11, but that no one was hurt in the incident. The Caucasus Times reported on September 10 that an improvised explosive device exploded about 800 meters away from a building in Nalchik housing the Kabardino-Balkaria Interior Ministry’s special police unit. According to the website, there were no casualties in that blast. On September 7, the president of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arsen Kanokov, claimed that there are 500-700 Islamists in Kabardino-Balkaria but no underground armed Islamist movement in the republic, Newsru.com reported.