KHANKALA. Aug 1 (Interfax-AVN) - A rebel captured in Chechnya's Kerigo gorge on Wednesday told investigators that the command of his gang had made a deal with Georgian authorities to cross the Russian state border on July 27.
In particular, two Arab guerrillas from a group led by field commander Khasan were handed over to a Georgian special service unit, the captured man said.
"The rebel claims that the Arabs were handed over in exchange for a huge sum in foreign currency; he did not rule out that the mercenaries could be later handed to Georgian secret services or U.S. military," a competent source in the unified federal headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
According to the source, the captured rebel confirms that Georgian border guards did not prevent the guerillas from crossing the border on July 27.
"This is the statement of Aslan Astamirov, 25, a member of Khasan's group, who was captured near the Kerigo gorge on July 31," the source stressed.
He noted that Astamirov was the head of a small guerrilla group. "His group featuring 10 people was supposed to deliver to Chechnya several Igla portable SAM systems, machine-guns and grenade launchers," the source said.
Astamirov said that the guerillas had known in advance that they would be allowed to cross the Chechen border safely. "At the same time, the extremists were warned that it was extremely undesirable to engage Russian federal forces," the source stressed.
According to him, six special operations took place in the Chechen Nozhai-Yurt, Shali, Vedeno and Itum-Kale districts on Wednesday. As a result five extremists were killed and 13 suspected rebels were detained.