GUDERMES REGIONAL HEAD ESCAPES INJURY IN BOMBING.

Chechen rebel forces are increasingly targeting Chechens deemed to be collaborating with the federal authorities. Early this morning, a powerful radio-controlled mine was detonated underneath a car ferrying the head of the Gudermes regional administration, Malika Gezimieva. The blast severely wounded one of her bodyguards and her driver. Gezimieva herself was unhurt. The apparent assassination attempt took place near a school which Akhmad Kadyrov, head of Chechnya’s provisional administration, was supposed to visit a short time later. Yesterday, an explosive device went off in the Zavadsky district of Djohar [Grozny], the Chechen capital. According to the local authorities, the bomb had been placed in an area where humanitarian aid was to be distributed to local residents. The police have detained two suspects in the bombing (Russian agencies, November 6).

Over the weekend, the federal forces’ press center reported that the body of a Russian serviceman was found near the Russian military headquarters’ in the Chechen region of Vedeno. The soldier had been beheaded. The press center said that the beheading was aimed at intimidating Chechens who have been cooperating with the Russian military forces and civilian administration in the republic. Also over the weekend, news agencies reported that police in the Chechen capital had discovered the bodies of a murdered family. According to these reports, investigators believe that the victims–two sisters and a brother–who murdered during a robbery. The website maintained by the pro-rebel Kavkaz Tsentr, however, cited the Chechen rebel command as saying that in fact five people, not three, had been murdered, and that two of them were local police inspectors. According to the website, the victims had been sentenced to death by the rebels’ Sharia court (Russian agencies, November 4).

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