KHANKALA. Nov 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Foreign mercenaries Abu Atiya and Abu Rabiya are heading terrorist units, deployed in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, Major General Ilya Shabalkin, an official of the regional headquarters managing anti-terrorist efforts in the North Caucasus, told Interfax on Monday.
He said that testimonies of Chechens, visiting their relatives in the Pankisi Gorge, testified to this fact.
According to people, visiting their relatives in the Pankisi Gorge, the gorge currently houses two major terrorist units. One of them, comprising over 200 followers of the late Ruslan Gelayev, is based near the villages of Duisi and Khalatsani, Shabalkin said.
Another unit, amounting to about 50 guerillas, is deployed in the northern Pankisi near the villages of Omalo and Tselebani.
Shabalkin emphasized that according to information of various sources and people, who visited the Pankisi Gorge, the terrorist units were headed by Abu Atiya and Abu Rabiya, assistants of Abu Khavsa.
Yet another terrorist unit is deployed near the village of Birkani. It comprises about 30 foreigners, speaking Turkish.
Guerillas have repeatedly robbed the locals of food and property in the Pankisi Gorge, and disseminated extremist literature.
Foreign mercenaries force young Chechens to join their terrorist units.
The information is confirmed by a member of warlord Doku Umarov's guerilla gang, arrested in the Shatoi district, Shabalkin said.