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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's most wanted man, Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, was killed during an overnight operation by special forces, the state security chief told President
Vladimir Putin on Monday.
FSB security agency chief Nikolai Patrushev said Basayev, who had claimed responsibility for the bloody 2004 Beslan school attack, had been planning an attack in southern Russia to disrupt the Group of Eight summit of world leaders Putin is hosting this weekend in St Petersburg.
Putin, whose already huge popularity will be boosted by the news just as he prepares to mark a high point of his six years in power by hosting the G8 summit, said Basayev's death was "deserved retribution" for his campaign of killing.
More than 331 people, half of them children, were killed in Beslan in September 2004 after Russian forces tried to end a siege of the school which had been seized by Islamist militants linked to
Chechnya's fight for independence.
"This is deserved retribution against the bandits for our children in Beslan, in Budennovsk, for all these acts of terror they committed in Moscow and other Russian regions, including Ingushetia and Chechnya," the Kremlin leader said in televised comments.
Budennovsk was a reference to an attack on a hospital in June 1995 -- long before Putin came to power. Rebels seized hundreds of hostages in the southern town and more than 100 people died during the rebel assault and a botched Russian commando raid.
FSB chief Patrushev said Basayev, together with other Chechen fighters, was killed in Ingushetia, a region neighboring Chechnya.
Patrushev said it was in Ingushetia that Basayev and his men had been planning to carry out a terrorist act to coincide with the G8 summit.
"They intended to use this terrorist act to put pressure on Russia's leadership at a time when the G8 summit was being held," Patrushev said.
Pictures on state television showed the wreckage of a truck that had been packed with explosive and apparently blew up, killing Basayev and several other rebels.
There was no information that the truck had been under fire from security forces when the blast happened.
A statement on website www.kavkazcenter.com said the Chechen rebel leadership was not making any comment for the time being.
The heavily-bearded Basayev, who was born in 1965, professed to be a devout Muslim. His left foot was blown off by a mine in 2000 and he wears a prosthesis.
Basayev, in a television interview aired last year, justified the attack on Beslan by saying Russian civilians -- including children -- were legitimate targets in his homeland's bloody fight for independence from Moscow.
"We are at war. Russians ... pay their taxes for this war, send their soldiers to this war, their priests sprinkle holy water on the soldiers," Basayev said in his soft lilt.
"How can they be innocent? Russians are accomplices in this war. It is just they don't all have weapons in their hands," he said in the interview with Britain's Channel 4.
Vladimir Putin on Monday.
FSB security agency chief Nikolai Patrushev said Basayev, who had claimed responsibility for the bloody 2004 Beslan school attack, had been planning an attack in southern Russia to disrupt the Group of Eight summit of world leaders Putin is hosting this weekend in St Petersburg.
Putin, whose already huge popularity will be boosted by the news just as he prepares to mark a high point of his six years in power by hosting the G8 summit, said Basayev's death was "deserved retribution" for his campaign of killing.
More than 331 people, half of them children, were killed in Beslan in September 2004 after Russian forces tried to end a siege of the school which had been seized by Islamist militants linked to
Chechnya's fight for independence.
"This is deserved retribution against the bandits for our children in Beslan, in Budennovsk, for all these acts of terror they committed in Moscow and other Russian regions, including Ingushetia and Chechnya," the Kremlin leader said in televised comments.
Budennovsk was a reference to an attack on a hospital in June 1995 -- long before Putin came to power. Rebels seized hundreds of hostages in the southern town and more than 100 people died during the rebel assault and a botched Russian commando raid.
FSB chief Patrushev said Basayev, together with other Chechen fighters, was killed in Ingushetia, a region neighboring Chechnya.
Patrushev said it was in Ingushetia that Basayev and his men had been planning to carry out a terrorist act to coincide with the G8 summit.
"They intended to use this terrorist act to put pressure on Russia's leadership at a time when the G8 summit was being held," Patrushev said.
Pictures on state television showed the wreckage of a truck that had been packed with explosive and apparently blew up, killing Basayev and several other rebels.
There was no information that the truck had been under fire from security forces when the blast happened.
A statement on website www.kavkazcenter.com said the Chechen rebel leadership was not making any comment for the time being.
The heavily-bearded Basayev, who was born in 1965, professed to be a devout Muslim. His left foot was blown off by a mine in 2000 and he wears a prosthesis.
Basayev, in a television interview aired last year, justified the attack on Beslan by saying Russian civilians -- including children -- were legitimate targets in his homeland's bloody fight for independence from Moscow.
"We are at war. Russians ... pay their taxes for this war, send their soldiers to this war, their priests sprinkle holy water on the soldiers," Basayev said in his soft lilt.
"How can they be innocent? Russians are accomplices in this war. It is just they don't all have weapons in their hands," he said in the interview with Britain's Channel 4.
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