14:50, 4 March 2004

FSB announces destruction of Akhmed Basnukayev from federal wanted list

Agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) killed the leader of one of the extremist bands Akhmed Basnukayev, 41, in Ingushetia on March 3, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the regional headquarters on the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, told Tass on March 4.

Basnukayev was a so-called brigade general of the "Urus-Martan front."

Shabalkin said Basnukayev had been behind a number of acts of terrorism, including those in Moscow, Stavropol Territory, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, as well as behind the abduction of General Shpigun in Chechnya.

This gunman reported directly to such notorious bandit bosses as Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev. He was a member of the supreme underground headquarters led by Arab mercenary Abu al-Walid. Basnukayev was on the federal wanted list for the personal murder of 30 people and death of 200 more people as a result of other grave crimes.

The operation against Basnukayev was carried out on one of the roads, Shabalkin said. His car was stopped for inspection. The bandit tried to put up armed resistance but was killed.

Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency