Three Nalchik attack partakers killed in Kabardino-Balkaria

Three rebels who took part in the Nalchik attack in October 2005 were killed in a special operation conducted by Kabardino-Balkaria's Internal Affairs Ministry last Friday.

The republican police blocked the three rebels in a private house in Anzorei, Lesken district, in the morning, Kabardino-Balkaria's Prosecutor Yuri Ketov said. "As they put up resistance, they were destroyed with response fire," Mr Ketov added. The police also set free the master of the house whom the rebels had taken hostage.

The prosecutor noted that there was information that the destroyed rebels had taken part in the attack on Nalchik on 13-14 October 2005 and the attack on a State Drugs Control unit in Nalchik in December 2004. They are also said to be involved in a number of other grave crimes, Interfax reports.

Mr Ketov also remarked that the killed rebels were among the "leadership of the underworld," according to information available to law enforcement agencies. According to Caucasian Knot's correspondent, one of those killed was a local Wahhabi leader (his surname is not given).

It was earlier reported that another rebel who had taken part in the 13 October Nalchik attack had been detained. Ms Marina Kiasova, chief press contact for the republican MIA, said this earlier on Friday.

"A local resident, b. 1977, was a member of the unit that attacked the Nalchik border unit No 34. He has been identified and exposed by his accomplices," Ms Kiasova said.

Two of the three rebels killed during today's special operation in the Lesken district may have been foreign citizens, a source with republican law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti.

"One of the three rebels destroyed in Anzorei has turned out to be a local resident and the other two, according to preliminary information, are foreign citizens," the police officer said. "They are currently being identified."

Information is currently being examined that those killed may have been the organisers of the Nalchik attack, the news agency's interlocutor added.

Ninety-two rebels were killed during the attack on the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reported. Figures given for killed police officers and civilians still vary. Thirty-five policemen died according to some information and it is 32 according to other information. The official number of killed civilians is 11.

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