Clashes in Chechen mountains

Large-scale operations to cordon off and destroy rebels have been launched in all mountainous districts of Chechnya.

"On February 24, officers of the interior ministry's special operations regiment jointly with officers of the Chechen presidential security service conducted a special operation and clashed with a rebel group near the villages of Alkhan and Bulgat-Irze, Chechnya's Nozhay-Yurt district. Three Chechen policemen were killed in the class, and one policeman was wounded. Two officers of the presidential security service also received wounds of different severity," a source at the Chechen interior ministry said.

"Federal special operations soldiers revealed a rebel group of three people near the Amir-Kort pass in Chechnya's Nozhay-Yurt district, which is close to the border with Dagestan. Two bandits were killed in a short clash, the third man was detained. According to the latter, they, by field commander Doku Umarov's order, were making their way to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, to kill relatives of Ruslan Gelayev, another field commander killed in February 2004," an officer of the Chechen military commandant's office said.

"According to our information, Gelayev's relatives believe Doku Umarov is guilty of Gelayev's death as he talked him into leaving for Georgia through Dagestan, where he was killed. Gelayev's brother, Movladi, and some other close relatives stay in Baku now. Umarov wanted to get rid of them as his deadly enemies," the officer explained.