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| Caucasus |
| Reactions to reports of Abu Walid's death |
| 2004-04-20 |
| Russian officials reacted cautiously Monday to reports that a Saudi-born rebel commander in Chechnya had been killed, while a rebel Web site said the zealous Muslim died from shrapnel wounds. Arab TV stations on Sunday reported that Abu Walid, also known as Abdul Aziz al-Ghamdi, had been killed by Russian government forces in Chechnya, quoting his brother. Badr Eldinne al-Chechani, a former deputy speaker of Chechen parliament and current director of the Jordan-based Arab-Caucasian Studies and Research Center, also confirmed the death in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Kavkaz Center, a Chechen rebel Web site, quoted a rebel source as saying Abu Walid had been praying Friday at a rebel base in the mountains of Chechnya when a bomb exploded next to him. He died from shrapnel wounds to his spine, it said. But Russian officials, usually keen to trumpet the deaths of prominent rebel leaders, were notably cautious in their statements Monday. "We have no intention of commenting on guesses, rumors or assumptions spread by the mass media," Col. Ilya Shabalkin, the chief spokesman for Russian forces in Chechnya, said, according to the Interfax news agency. Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen president, also would not confirm Abu Walid's death but said "if he really has been killed, we can only rejoice," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Kadyrov said several rebels who appeared to be of Arabic origin had been killed recently. At the same time, he warned that reports of the rebel's death could be "false information spread to allow rebel leaders to escape," Interfax reported. President Vladimir Putin's representative in southern Russia, Vladimir Yakovlev, voiced similar doubts, saying that reports about Abu Walid's death could be a "smoke screen" to help him flee. Abu Walid, an explosives expert believed to be in his 30s, had been reported killed five times before, the newspaper Kommersant said Monday. Russian authorities in November offered a $100,000 reward for the information on his whereabouts, Kommersant said. Russia's Federal Security Service has said that Abu Walid arrived in Chechnya after training in militant camps in Afghanistan and fighting alongside Muslims in Bosnia. It claims most of the suicide bombings in Russia in recent years were financed from abroad and organized by Abu Walid, whom it has called the head of al-Qaeda's "Arab emissaries" in Chechnya. Abu Walid was also seen as the money man for the rebels – receiving and distributing funds smuggled in from abroad to support the Chechens' fight. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |