KHANKALA. Oct 20 (Interfax-ABN) - A member of an illegal armed group was killed in a special operation in the Nazran district of Ingushetia, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the regional headquarters for the anti-guerilla operation in the North Caucasus told Interfax on Monday.
The rebel named Khasan Garakoyev was notorious for abductions and hostage taking, Shabalkin said. As an example, he cited the abduction of a Nazran resident in 2000. Federal forces managed to release the hostage.
Garakoyev also recruited for rebel units, Shabalkin said. He had close contacts with rebel Rustam Ganiyev, who included his sisters Milana and Fatima in Movsar Barayev's terrorist group. The women were killed in an operation to release hostages from a Moscow theater last year.
Isa Aliyev, Wahhabi jamaat emir of the Grozny Oktyabrsky district, was killed in Katayama, the Staropromyslovsky district of Chechnya, Shabalkin said. Aliyev resisted detention and was shot.
A Kalashnikov assault rifle with an attached grenade launcher, a camouflage uniform, an ammunition carrier vest, a Kenwood radio set, numerous electronic detonators, eight hand grenades, TNT, mortar mines, batteries, radio parts and electronic chips were found on the scene, Shabalkin said.
A diploma from the Grozny Pedagogical Institute certifying Aliyev as a teacher of the English and Arabic languages was also found.
Police Senior Lieutenant Ruslan Almurzayev, who had tried to hold negotiations with the rebel to avoid any deaths, was lethally wounded during the operation.