STAVROPOL/VLADIKAVKAZ. Sept 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Two Chechen rebel groups active in the mountains of Ingushetia, a Russian internal republic bordering Chechnya and Georgia, may have moved there from Georgia, a source in the North Caucasus regional border guard department told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
"One Ali Machalokoshvili, head of the so-called 'Ruslan Gelayev's special police unit', heads one of the bands," the source said.
Most of Gelayev's men are deployed in camps inside Georgia, close to the Ingush stretch of the Russian border, he said.
"We have obtained information that Gelayev's family is in the vicinity of the Omalo village in the Akhmeta district of Georgia, but according to reports from locals, Gelayev has not been seen there for the past two weeks," the source said.
Several groups of Chechen rebels are living at their relatives' houses in the Pankisi Gorge posing as refugees, he adeed.
A source in the 58th army headquarters told Interfax-AVN earlier in the day that federal forces had so far failed to destroy guerrillas who attacked military hardware in the Ingush and North Ossetian autonomous republics over the weekend.
"The search for bandits who attacked military helicopters and other hardware of the 58th army, is carried out by army units and police but they have so far been unable to block the attackers," the source said.
According to him, guerrilla groups generally numbering a total of about 50 people are operating in Ingushetia and North Ossetia. The source does not rule out that the guerrillas belong to warlord Ruslan Gelayev's group that is relocating from Georgia to Chechnya.