Russians Claim Kill of Rebel Leader "the head sabotage and explosives expert for Khattab"

NAZRAN, Russia (AP) -Russian troops claimed Monday that they killed a rebel chief in Chechnya, the breakaway republic where fighting continues despite a Kremlin offer to begin negotiations on laying down weapons.

Russian troops clashed with a group of rebels in the village of Starye Atagi south of the Chechen capital Grozny, killing three of them and wounding one in a battle that lasted several hours, said an official with the Kremlin-appointed administration for Chechnya, who asked not to be named.

One of those killed was identified as Abu Yakub, a rebel chief who worked as the head sabotage and explosives expert for Khattab, a prominent Muslim warlord who is Jordanian by birth and uses only one name, the official said.

President Vladimir Putin has urged the rebels to sever ties with Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Russian officials have described Khattab, who remains at large, as a close associate of bin Laden.

U.S. officials welcomed Putin's offer last week to hold disarmament talks with the rebels and President Bush endorsed Putin's assertion that some rebels in Chechnya are affiliated with bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization.

Despite the offer of talks, fighting has continued unabated throughout the rebel region.

At least 11 Russian troops were killed and about 30 wounded in rebel shellings and mine explosions throughout Chechnya over the past 24 hours, said the Chechen administration official.

Despite Moscow's claim that federal troops control most of Chechnya, rebels kill Russian troops and pro-Moscow officials in daily attacks. On Sunday, they killed the pro-Russian police chief in the southern Chechen town of Shali, Hamzat Bashanov, and decapitated his body, local residents said.

Unidentified gunmen also entered the village of Avtury over the weekend, killing six local residents and burning a house, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the local administration.

Federal troops have searched several Chechen towns and villages for suspected rebels, detaining about 120 people over the past 24 hours, said the Chechen administration official.

Russian troops retreated from Chechnya after losing the first 1994-1996 war. They returned three years later after Chechnya-based rebels invaded the neighboring region of Dagestan and after apartment bombings in several Russian cities that killed about 300 people and were blamed on the rebels.

Check out "Chechenz with attitude" bookmark in my profile, there was a FR thread on this topic.

See the strange spin, no mention of innocent Chechens, only adjective Russian is being repeated:

(From http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm)
Report: Bin Laden Linked to Russia Tue Oct 02 2001 12:49:53 ET ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered information that Russian criminal groups have been supplying Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist group with components for chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, The Washington Times reported. The Foreign Ministry called the report an attempt to undermine relations between the United States and Russia at a time of increased cooperation.

The Washington Times, citing U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity, reported last Wednesday that bin Laden is believed by U.S. intelligence to have a secret nuclear-weapons laboratory inside Afghanistan. This is believed to be one of the sites sought for U.S. military strikes, the newspaper said.

There is no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But bin Laden has worked with Russian mafia groups in obtaining components for weapons of mass destruction, according to officials familiar with the intelligence reports.

The U.S. State Department's latest report on international terrorism says that al-Qaeda continued to seek chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear capabilities, the newspaper said.

Intelligence officials say al-Qaeda is probably trying to produce the nerve agent Sarin or biological weapons made up of anthrax spores.

A former State Department counter terrorism official, Larry Johnson, said the contacts between the Russian mafia and bin Laden could be related to drug trafficking and that such cooperation would not be surprising, the newspaper said.

The Foreign Ministry said the new report raises a question: ``Why should such information be splashed out on newspaper pages instead of discussing it through the channels existing between our countries, including confidential ones?''

''One may get the impression that some in the United States oppose the positive tendency in Russian-American relations that has made itself felt recently,'' the ministry said in a statement carried by Interfax.

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