21:04, 15 January 2004

Ruslan Gelayev not found among killed in Dagestan

Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev is not among the separatists killed in Dagestan, reported Shamkhal Aliyev, chief of the search-and-rescue unit of the Dagestani Rescue Team of the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

"Ruslan Gelayev, extremists' and foreign mercenaries' group leader, is not among the ten bodies of militants destroyed last December by the federal forces. We have recently found them in the places of hostilities," Aliyev said on January 15 upon return to Makhachkala from the Tsuntinsky district.

He said that his group of ten had been doing search in the mountains on January 10 to 13. The bodies were found near the Kirioti mountain (3,680 meters) in crevices between the populated places of Sagada, the Tsuntinsky district, and Mitradi, the Tsumadinsky district.

"We expected to find 13 but have found ten bodies, one of which was obviously buried by accomplices," Aliyev said. "We took them to a place where they could be identified and then taken to Khankala."

Editors note: See also the article "Dagestani Interior Ministry on Gelayev's possible death in avalanche".

Source: RIA Novosti