ROSTOV-ON-DON. Jan 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky did not confirm media reports about the death of Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev in the Dagestani mountains.
"There is no information about the death of Ruslan Gelayev in the criminal case materials or in the testimony of detained rebels," Fridinsky told Interfax on Monday.
A spokesman for the regional headquarters of the anti- guerilla campaign in the North Caucasus told Interfax on Monday, "We do not have any information to precisely confirm the death of field commander Gelayev on the territory of Dagestan."
"Claims to the effect are being thoroughly verified," the spokesman said.
The media has published reports that Gelayev was killed in a counter-rebel operation in the Dagestani highlands.
Dagestani Deputy Prosecutor Zaur Isayev also denied the death of Gelayev.
"We have no information that Gelayev is dead," Isayev told Interfax.
Investigators are studying information about five rebels detained in the Tsunta district of Dagestan, he said.
"We have materials about the five detained rebels. There are no foreigners among them," he said.
Investigators have not yet been able to identify five other rebels who were killed, said Roman Shchekotin, press service chief for the Russian Interior Ministry's Department for the Southern Federal District.
"The weather and adverse terrain make it impossible to identify the rebels at present," he said.