NALCHIK. June 25 (Interfax-South) - There may have been residents of Kabardino-Balkaria, a Russian internal republic, among the rebels that raided several Ingush communities on the night of Monday.
"Such information exists and is being checked," chief of the Kabardino-Balkarian Interior Ministry's organized crime department Felix Shurdumov said at a ministry meeting on Friday.
Rebel units reportedly numbering up to 200 men attacked the Ingush communities of Nazran, Karabulak, and Sleptsovskaya late on Monday. According to the Ingush government, 98 people, mostly policemen, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, and border guards, were killed in the attack, and 104 others wounded.
The meeting at the Kabardino-Balkarian Interior Ministry, attended by the chiefs of city and district police stations, dealt with the mobilization of police personnel to avert a terrorist threat.
Deputy chief of the criminal police service Naurbi Zhamborov said that following an order by Interior Minister Khachim Shogenov, a provisional crisis center had been set up to coordinate police activity under the Whirlwind-Antiterror operation that has been launched. District police units on duty have been beefed-up, the police headquarters guard has been reinforced, and the number of road police outposts has been doubled.
Zhamborov also ordered that efforts to seize weapons circulated in illegal trade be intensified, with special attention paid to religious extremists and drug-addicts.