Esbulat Akbulatov, 36, a gunman from a detachment subordinate to the Chechen notorious ringleader Shamil Basayev, has been arrested by security agents in the Volga city of Astrakhan, a source at the regional police headquarters told Tass on Thursday.
| That'd make him part of Khamzat's Special Purpose Islamic Regiment. Now that Khamzat's toes up, his subordinates appear to be dropping like flies. |
Akbulatov was put on federal wanted list in August 1999 for active participation in the armed attack on the villages of the Botlikh district of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Daghestan.
| Dagestan is probably one of the best object lessons as to what happens when al-Qaeda gets its way. The Chechens won their de facto independence during the first war against Russia, but al-Qaeda and Saudi funding turned the place into a terrorist haven. And no soon is Chechnya recovering from the first war than do Basayev and Khattab decide to invade the nearest Russian republic. There's a lot that can be said for or against Chechen independence, but you can't have talks with people who plan to take over the Caucasus whether its inhabitants want it or not. |
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