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Law enforcers chase militants in Chechnya, one terrorist killed

The dead militant was linked to ringleader Dokhu Umarov

MOSCOW, July 8 (Itar-Tass) - Law enforcers are chasing a group of militants in the Chechen Republic. One militant linked to ringleader Doku Umarov has been killed, a source at the information center of the National Anti-Terror Committee told Itar-Tass on Monday.

The National Anti-Terror Committee clarified that a subversive group of up to ten terrorists had been discovered in the woodland area on the border of the Urus-Martan, Achkhoi-Martan and Shatoisky districts of Chechnya as early as June 29. Law enforcers immediately launched a pursuit.

"The militants put up armed resistance to the policemen near the Kharsenoi settlement of the Shatoisky district at 5:50 Moscow time on Monday. One militant received wounds that were incompatible with life during the fighting,” a National Anti-Terror Committee source said. The man was preliminary identified as Rustam Saliyev (Khimkayev), the chieftain of the so-called “Achkhoi-Martan gang” nicknamed Abu-Muslim.

"A genetic expertise is being carried out to confirm his identity,” the source went on to say.

"Saliyev was Doku Umarov’s associate. He was his personal bodyguard in 2008-2011,” a police report says.

Saliyev has been on the federal wanted list since 2011 for complicity in a series of terror-related crimes. They include a terror strike at the Dallas caf· in Grozny in June 2008; a terror attack on Interior Ministry employees in the Malgobeksky district of Chechnya in 2012 and an attack and the blowing up of policemen on the Muzhichi-Nizhniy Alkun road.

According to information provided by the Federal Security Service department for Chechnya, Saliyev was trained in a terrorist camp in Georgia in 1999-2001 where he studied mining.

Since 2008, he had been actively involved in terror activities in the territories of Chechnya and Ingushetia.

The National Anti-Terror Committee continues its search for militants, arms caches and explosive devices.