Rebel organizer of Mozdok bombings killed in shootout with police

One of the leaders of a Chechen rebel group accused of the Mozdok bombings earlier this year, Kazbek Turazhev, was killed in a shootout with Internal Affairs Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSS) employees in Ingushetia yesterday. The Internal Affairs Ministry press service told Rosbalt that the Internal Affairs Ministry and Federal Security Service employees surrounded the building where Turazhev was hiding out and asked him to give up his weapons and surrender. However, Turazhev resisted and was shot in the course of cross-fire. There were no casualties or injuries to police or FSS employees reported. A number of weapons and ammunition were discovered along with documents and papers in the building where Turazhev was hiding out.

A search warrant had been issued for Turazhev's arrest in connection with the suspicion of committing especially terrible crimes including the female suicide bombing of a bus near a military airfield in Mozdok on June 5, which killed 19 people and the bombing of a hospital in Mozdok when a truck loaded with explosives crashed through the gates of the hospital and killed 50 people on August 1.