KHANKALA. Dec 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Police have detained the ringleader of an armed unit acting in the Naurskaya district of Chechnya, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus Major General Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Monday.
Shamil Basayev appointed the 26-year-old resident of the Rubezhnoye village in the Naurskaya district as the leader of the unit, he said.
The detained man admitted that he learned demolition skills in a camp under the guidance of Arab mercenary Abdul Hakim. The mercenary was subordinated to Abu al Walid, Shabalkin said.
The suspect also said he had committed several grave crimes together with other militants trained in camps of Khattab and Abu al Walid.
He said he blew up a railroad track near the Mekenskaya station in the Naurskaya district in June 2001, and did it again when a freight train was en route from Terek to the Naurskaya station in November 2002.
The militant was responsible for several more explosions in the Naurskaya district and he fired grenade launchers and automatic weapons at police vehicles.