Russians Seize Aide to Rebel Leader
Russian forces captured a top aide to a prominent Chechen rebel leader, President Vladimir V. Putin said Friday.
Abu Sayah, an aide to the Arab warlord who goes by the name Khattab, was seized during a special operation early Friday, Putin said.
Sayah “supplied money, organized terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Federation and maintained contact with his units on the territory of Georgia,” Putin said at a news conference in Moscow with the other 11 presidents of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of former Soviet republics.
Meanwhile, a top Defense Ministry official said Russian forces had intensified the military campaign in Chechnya.
“This is the most suitable time to inflict irreparable damage,” Yuri Baluyevsky said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Baluyevsky said 300 to 500 mercenaries remain in Chechnya. They are trying to take refuge from the winter among civilians or in neighboring countries, he said.
Russian aircraft pounded Nozhai-Yurt, Kurchaloi and Vedeno in southern and eastern Chechnya, and artillery bombarded Itum-Kale, Vedeno and Urus-Martan, said an official in the pro-Moscow Chechen administration. Six Russian troops were killed in rebel attacks over the last 24 hours, the official said.
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