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| Caucasus |
| Toe tag for Basayev associate |
| 2004-04-19 |
| An Ingush Wahhabi Jamaat emir close to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was among the rebels killed in the village of Sleptsovskaya in Ingushetia on Saturday, a military spokesman told Interfax. Magomed Khashiyev, the Wahhabi emir of Ingushetia's Sunzha district, and three other rebels were killed in an operation carried out by Russian security forces, spokesman Col. Ilya Shabalkin said. All of them were close to Basayev, and recruited and trained female suicide bombers in different parts of the North Caucasus. Khashiyev underwent training at a military camp led by Jordanian- born field commander Hattab and was among the organizers of the car blast near the Ingush Security Service's headquarters in Magas in September, 2003, and of the Nazran-Moscow train bombing in October, 2003, Shabalkin said. Khashiyev permanently wore a suicide bomb belt. He was known for mishandling funds received from extremist organizations and was not respected by rank-and-file rebels. The evidence provided by rebels suggests that Khashiyev maintained partnership relations with Arab mercenary Abu Zeid, the leader of Ingushetia's rebel underground movement. Shabalkin denied reports that Ingush policemen were taken hostage by rebels. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |