7 separatists killed in Chechnya

Four militants have been killed in Chechnya, reports the regional command center for supervising the North Caucasian counter-terrorist operation.

They were killed the other day in Chechnya's Vedeno district, after the authorities received information concerning their whereabouts.

A commando unit ambushed and killed four militants several kilometers east of Kharachoi, a headquarters spokesman noted. Three Kalashnikov assault rifles, 3,500 bullets, grenades and two rocket launchers were found after the battle.

The bandits didn't have any ID cards whatsoever; the authorities are now trying to identify them, the spokesman went on to say.

This gang was liquidated with the help of local residents, who informed the authorities that paramilitary units had repeatedly been moving through Vedeno-district forests.

Federal forces located another five bandits on June 4, while conducting search-and-reconnaissance operations 10 km south-west of the Shali district's Serzhen-Yurt village, headquarters people said. Three bandits were killed, with the other two managing to hide inside a local forest, the headquarters spokesman noted.

He also said that members of a terrorist cell commanded by emir Magomed Rakhanov had been detained. (Each Wahhabi community is headed by an emir).

Six militants were detained the other day by law-enforcement officers in Chernorechye in Grozny's Zavodskoi district.

A detained man named Aliyev testified that he and other persons had served with a terrorist cell under the command of emir Magomed Rakhanov since December 2003. According to Aliyev, he had blown up an UAZ command vehicle on January 18, 2004 in Grozny.