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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russians risk reprisals for killing a rebel chief
2004-10-26
Magomed Khashiyev has died again, this time for real.
Are they sure he's going to stay dead?
He was surprised and cornered, caught during a rare reunion with his wife and four children in a small single-story house here in Ingushetia, Russian republic neighboring Chechnya, on Oct. 10. After years of eluding the authorities, he spent his last moments fleeing shoeless through a garden, as Russian commandos riddled him with automatic rifle fire, witnesses and his relatives say.
Don't remember if this has been posted before, but that was such a nice to start my day I thought I'd share.
Russian authorities described Khashiyev as an Islamic terrorist loyal to Shamil Basayev, the Chechen who claimed responsibility for the worst acts of terror to strike modern Russia, including the siege at a public school in Beslan in September in which at least 344 people were killed. Khashiyev trained in a terrorist camp in Chechnya, the Russians said, led a wing of Basayev's separatist group and helped organize attacks, including the seizure of the school. The unsparing pursuit of Khashiyev demonstrates Russia's invigorated efforts to hunt separatists after terrorist attacks have shaken the country this year. The Russian security services, which erroneously announced at least once before that they had killed him, all but openly celebrated his death. "We feel satisfaction," said Major General Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for counterterrorism forces in the North Caucasus.
Me too. More at the link.
Posted by:Steve

#9  What are they going to do --- take over a Russian school, and kill a few hundred students?
Posted by: Anonymous6092   2004-10-26 10:32:16 PM  

#8  One suspects that any rights under the Geneva convention didn't come up unlike our own rather weak-wristed approach......
Posted by: Cleamp Clereling9243   2004-10-26 5:44:23 PM  

#7  WhiteKitty, ahm, am quite sure that Russkies have this method on the top of their operational agenda. Some years ago, a couple of their diplos have been kidnapped by some jihadi outfit. The KGB found relatives of the kidnappers, "acquired" them, and started to send deliveries of minor body parts (part of a digit or ear and a note saying that bigger parts would be delivered if the hostages had one hair harmed) to the suspected location for the outfit command. The two hostages were released pretty fast.
Posted by: Cornîliës   2004-10-26 12:21:42 PM  

#6  New intelligence methods include tracking associates and relatives of the target, creating ever closer concentric circles of affiliation. The point being that even if you can't directly trace Basayev, you can track those who have some relation to him and through them, get to him. Did the Russians get too eager?
Posted by: WhiteCat   2004-10-26 12:10:50 PM  

#5  Dallas, has been tried already and did not work that well. I say, an entirely new approach is necessary. Let's call it, euphemistically, a lead poisoning.
Posted by: Cornîliës   2004-10-26 12:10:10 PM  

#4  What sort of #*%^* headline is that? You can just see the NYT weenie's hands trembling as he types this out. "Oh, dear. Now they've done it. Those Chechens might do something radical in retaliation. Who, oh who, will break this cycle of violence?"
Posted by: Dreadnought   2004-10-26 11:50:36 AM  

#3  Deporting the clan to Siberia will also reduce reprisals.
Posted by: Dallas   2004-10-26 10:22:44 AM  

#2  Ooh, the Ingush are mad at me. I'm so scared! Oooh, the Ingush!
Posted by: Vladimir Putin   2004-10-26 10:09:27 AM  

#1  Killing the underlings would reduce the risk of reprisals substantially. Just my humble opinion submission.
Posted by: Cornîliës   2004-10-26 9:05:17 AM  

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