Moscow: The militant described as the mastermind of an attack that badly wounded the head of Russia`s Ingushetia region has been killed after a shootout with Russian forces, reports said on Saturday.
Rustam Dzortov was suspected of planning the June 22 car bomb attack on Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the former paratroop commander appointed by the Kremlin to bring control to increasingly violent Ingushetia.
His body was found on Saturday after a shootout between militants and security forces on Friday that left two other militants dead, local security sources told Russian news agencies.
"Two militants were killed in the shootout. The third managed to hide. On Saturday his body was found not for from the scene of the clash," a spokesman for the Federal Security Service (FSB) told Russian news agencies.
"His identity has been established. He was Rustam Dzortov, the leader of the Ingush (rebel) underground and the direct organiser of the attack on President Yevkurov," the official added.
It was not clear how Dzortov died but the ITAR-TASS news agency said he was "found with a grenade in his hand".
There has been mounting violence throughout Russia`s overwhelmingly Muslim Northern Caucasus over the last months as Islamist militants wage an insurgency against the pro-Kremlin local authorities.
Yevkurov has only just returned to work after recovering from his wounds. In his absence a local minister was shot dead in his office and a bomb attack on the Ingushetia police headquarters killed over 20 people.
Bureau Report
