KHANKALA. March 4 (Interfax-AVN) - The secret services have killed "brigadier general and commander of the rebel group Urus- Martan Front" Akhmed Basnukayev in Ingushetia, representative of the regional headquarters for the anti-terrorist campaign in the North Caucasus Colonel Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax.
He said none of the servicemen who took part in the operation was hurt.
Basnukayev reported directly to Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev, Shabalkin said.
"He was a member of the so-called Majlis Ul-Shura Mujaheddin, the supreme command of the rebels," Shabalkin said. He added that Arab mercenary Abu Al-Walid heads the Shura forces.
"Basnukayev was put on the wanted list for committing over 30 murders, terrorist acts and other crimes in which more than 200 people were killed," he said.
In the operation against Basnukayev, "the Federal Security Service learned his route, a patrol was placed on the road, and the patrol stopped the vehicle carrying Basnukayev and another rebel. The two opened fire, but were killed in the clash," Shabalkin said.
"There were eight kilograms of plastic explosives packed in black bags in the car. The explosives were meant for handmade bombs," he said.
"The secret services say Basnukayev was involved in crime in the 1990s. He acquired apartments in Grozny by killing the owners," Shabalkin said.
The Basnukayev gang acted in the Urus-Martan and Achkhoi- Martan districts of Chechnya and made sporadic incursions into Ingushetia, he said.
"The gang committed many terrorist acts and abducted people to obtain ransom from their families. They also murdered local residents who were trying to live a normal life. Aslan Maskhadov awarded Basnukayev the rank of brigadier general," Shabalkin said.
"Basnukayev maintained close relations with rebel ringleaders Doku Umarov and Arbi Barayev and Arab mercenaries Khattab, Abu-Umar and Abu Al-Walid," he said.
"Detained rebels said that Basnukayev helped organize the latest terrorist acts in Moscow, the Stavropol territory, Ingushetia and Chechnya," Shabalkin said, "Together with other rebel ringleaders, including Rappani Khalilov, he took part in the abduction of Russian Interior Ministry representative in Chechnya General Shpigun, and the terrorist act in Kaspiisk on May 9, 2002."
The regional headquarters has information that Basnukayev had been planning an attack on a Chechen high-ranking official.