Yunadi Turchayev, so-called "emir of Grozny" and the right hand of separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, who was eliminated yesterday, planned to perpetrate a terror act in Grozny on February 23, the regional operational HQ for the antiterrorist operation in the North Caucasus informed RIA Novosti on Saturday. "Not long ago Turchayev came from abroad, where he had been instructed and funded to carry out a series of major terror acts in Chechnya and other regions of Russia. He planned to perpetrate a terror act in Grozny on February 23," a source in the HQ was quoted as saying.Turchayev, 33 years old, was eliminated by a patrol of the Chechen Interior Ministry on February 18. The terrorist commanded the so-called Islamic regiment and coordinated actions of terrorists in Grozny and the republic's central part, RIA Novosti's interlocutor said. Also, Turchayev was involved in the arrangement of the attack on Grozny on August 19, 2004, the Chechen Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti. According to preliminary information, the eliminated militant was involved in a number of terror acts, including that of June 7, 2002, when his armed group blew up a ZIL-131 truck on the Grozny-Baky motorway, killing two and injuring three men. Beside, Turchayev was one of the organizers of a terror act in Grozny on September 20, 2002, when police officers were injured in a car explosion.
"Moreover, he was involved in a murder of Magomed-Said Vakhayev, Deputy Head of the Urus-Martan Interior Department, on November 17, 2002. On December 3, 2002 Turchayev's gang killed Head of the Criminal Police of the Urus-Martan Interior Department Khalkayev," the source in the regional department reported. Turchayev's gang was reported to have attacked the car of head of the Kulary village administration Ibragimov in September 2003, killing two men. According to the HQ, the group also carried out a raid to Ingushetia in June 2004 and a sally in Grozny on August 21, 2004. "Turchayev's group members recruited young men into illegal armed formations. By Maskhadov's instructions Arab mercenary Abu-Omar funded this activity," the HQ source was quoted as saying.