Chechen terrorist warlord Basayev must be killed by May 9

Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview published Friday that he and his security service had set the target of killing rebel warlord Shamil Basayev by May 9, the first anniversary of Kadyrov's father's assassination in a bombing at a Victory Day parade in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Basayev has claimed responsibility for the explosion that killed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov last year, as well as a long series of other attacks.

"I must avenge my father; that's the way it is here (in Chechnya)," Ramzan Kadyrov told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. "Let him be brought to justice in the other world."

Kadyrov said that five people had carried out the assassination, and that all but one - who he said was among the workers who had carried out construction on the stadium - had been killed.

He said that according to his information, Basayev was in the southern Russian region of Dagestan, which borders on Chechnya.

Also Friday, the Interfax news agency reported that unidentified gunmen had stopped a Chechen police car and stolen 1.6 million rubles (US$57,600; Ђ44,450), which had been intended to pay police salaries. The gunmen also made off with a police assault rifle and pistol in the Thursday attack, Interfax said.

Associated Press