Khattab has been killed, apparently.

bugler

This might be of genuine interest to very few people, but for what its worth, the 'warlord' Khattab, seemingly a pal of Osama's, has been allegedly killed in Chechnya by Russian Special forces. Hasn't been confirmed yet.

Enigmatic chap, Islamic fundamentalist who no-one seems to really know much about. His real name is unknown, and there is strong doubt about his nationality. Had a few fingers blown off by a home made grenade, and got shot in the stomach by a .50 cal and lived. Seems he mightn't have been invincible after all though...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chechnya/Story/0,2763,690822,00.html

bonkey

Originally posted by bugler
This might be of genuine interest to very few people, but for what its worth, the 'warlord' Khattab, seemingly a pal of Osama's, has been allegedly killed in Chechnya by Russian Special forces. Hasn't been confirmed yet.

Interesting. I'll be more interested to hear why he was killed and not arrested, if that is what happened.

Had a few fingers blown off by a home made grenade, and got shot in the stomach by a .50 cal and lived.

A real Boris the Bullet Dodger then?

jc

bugler

Quite.

To be honest bonkey, I think the answer to why he was killed and not arrested lies in the fact that the Chechnen conflict is and always has been more than an anti-terrorist operation. Same reason that any soldier is killed and not arrested. All the major players have the story now:

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/25/chechnya.khattab/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1950000/1950679.stm

The Chechen rebels are still cliaming he's alive, but the again they did that for Dudayev too.

The Gopher

Renegade groups always deny their leaders are dead for propoganda.In Afghanistan it tooks days for the Nth AAlliance to confirm that Masood was assasinated[just a few days before sept 11 strangely.Some have even speculated it was a signal to attack the us]
And god knows where Bin Laden is now.Claiming the same that hes alive when hes dead perhaps?Though there is still a stronger possibility that he is still alive.But is it not to a groups advantage to claim a leader is dead?It may hurt public morale but the enemy may stop searching.

Clintons Cat

Slightly off topic but whilst talking of Russia/chechenia
i see Former General Alexander Lebed died in an aircrash at the weekend.

Although Lebed favored the army's active role in Moldova, he was extremely critical of the decision to intervene militarily in Chechnya. As the campaign began, Lebed sarcastically offered to lead a regiment into battle if it would be made up of the children and grandchildren of "our glorious government and members of the parliament."

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/dmiguse/Russian/albio.html

BBC Report here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1955000/1955979.stm

Some background to the 1996 Russia/chechen peace deal here from a pro Ichkeria perspective
http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/world98/rus-chec.htm
pro russian perspective
http://www.nns.ru/chronicle/archive/e-chron03.html

bugler

Khattab is dead, and apparently was killed with a lethal toxin by the FSB.

http://www.amina.com/article/khaboost.html

Bio-terror alert!