MOSCOW, April 4 (Itar-Tass) — Police in Dagestan have established the identity of all the six militants destroyed in the outskirts of the village of Kadirkent. They were members of the gang led by Turkish mercenary Muhanned.
Aside from two brothers - Rashid and Magomed Gazaliyev - the four other gunmen were residents of the same district. They belonged to the so-called Sergokala gang.
Police identified them as Salman Budaichiyev, a native of the village of Burdeki, nicknamed Huzeifa. He was recruited by militants in June 2010 after he had come from the Chelyabinsk region to attend the wedding of his relative. The others were natives of Sergokala Ruslan Kapiyev, nicknamed Adam and Ilyas Zakaryayev, nicknamed Abdulaziz, who joined the gang in April and May, 2011, respectively.
Kapiyev and Zakaryayev were involved in the murder of Sergokala police chief Nasrula Magomedov on May 2, 2011. On May 4, 2011, Zakaryayev participated in shelling police experts with sniffer dogs, in which one of the police officers was killed. He also threatened violence on his relatives serving in law-enforcement bodies and demanded that they resign.
The fourth militant was identified as Yusup Khalimbekov, who had left his home in the village of Burdeki five days ago to join militants in the woods.
"Police recovered from the scene of fighting three anti-tank grenade launchers, three Kalashnikov machine guns, four assault rifles, a hunting rifle converted to sniper's rifle, a rifle-attached grenade launcher, many rounds of ammunition, grenades, bomb parts and bomb-making instructions, an official at the National Antiterrorist Committee said.
"The Sergokala gang led by Turkish mercenary Muhanned, also known as Sheikh Abdusalam, is involved in a number of terrorist crimes, assassinations of civilians, clerics, servicemen, and police, as well as in extortions.