There were several dozen mercenaries among militants who engaged in battle at village of Galashki

There were 20 Turks, 11 Arabs, two Georgians and other mercenaries among those who fought at the village of Galashki in Ingushetia (a republic in the North Caucasus), Sergei Fridinsky, Russia's Deputy Prosecutor-General, told journalists on Saturday in Rostov-on-Don. He explained that such evidence had been given by three men detained in the course of the operation.

As Fridinsky said, according to the testimony of the detained, the 200-strong armed group had left Georgia's territory in the first days of September. For a month members of this band were hiding in the woods of North Ossetia and Ingushetia, trying to fight their way into the Chechen Republic.

Fridinsky also said that it had not yet been established who commanded the bandit group -- Gelayev or Vitaly Smirnov. As the deputy prosecutor-general explained, so far this is only known from the evidence of the detained.