Moscow, Dec 15: About 1000 rebels and several warlords, including one reportedly linked to terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, were killed this year in Chechnya during counter-terrorism operations by Russian security agencies, a top security official said here today. International terrorist Emir Khattab, an ethnic Arab known for his contacts with al-Qaeda supremo bin Laden, was among the warlords killed in Chechnya in 2002, FSB security service director Nikolai Patrushev was quoted as saying by radio Mayak.
Speaking at the annual meeting with Russian media chiefs, Patrushev said six terrorist ringleaders involved in the killings of civilians and attacks on the federal troops were arrested in Chechnya.
Patrushev, who heads Russia's anti-terror intelligence agency FSB, created after the fragmentation of ex-soviet KGB, said investigators have ample proof of involvement of the Chechen separatist leaders including Aslan Maskhadov, Shamil Basayev, Mauladi Udugov and Zelimkhan Yenderbiyev in October's Moscow theatre siege.
Forty-one terrorists, including leader of hostage-takers Mavsur Barayev were killed in releasing 750 hostages in the siege, while 129 hostages were killed under the affect of gas used by the security forces. Bureau Report