Chechen terrorists hiding in Pakistan's highlands?

Last week, the Pakistani military conducted an operation against terrorists hiding near the border with Afghanistan, killing and capturing more than 20 men.

At least one of them was of Chechen extraction, Anatole Lieven, a chief expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, has told RIA Novosti.

The data on the Chechen militant were available on an Internet site sponsored by mojahedins, said Mr Lieven.

The more exact data on the number of Chechens among the remaining Al-Qaeda militants based in a hard-to-reach area near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan cannot be obtained, he emphasized. Islamic radicals from the Caucasus or even Middle Asia are often referred to as Chechens, said the expert.

The anti-terrorist operation took place on October 2 in Southern Waziristan, an autonomous part of Pakistan's northwest province populated predominantly by the ethnic Pashtoons.

The Financial Times wrote last week, with reference to Afghan officials, that a few Chechens had been captured along with other radicals.