 Russia's Defence Ministry said Friday that its forces had destroyed four militants in Chechnya including a Canadian resident. Col. Vyacheslav Sedov, spokesman for the ministry, identified the dead Canadian resident as Khalil Rudvan of Vancouver. Mr. Rudvan was killed with three other alleged fighters in a clash with special forces outside the village of Niki-Khita in the mountainous Kurchaloi region of Chechnya, he said. The Interfax news agency quoted Maj.-Gen. Ilya Shabalkin, the Federal Security Service spokesman in Chechnya, as saying that Rudvan had been an explosives expert who entered Russia in September on a tourist visa. He said Rudvan had entered Chechnya from the neighbouring Russian region of Dagestan, accompanied by three gunmen from a militant group headed by Akhmed Avdorkhanov. |