THREE MORE REBEL SUSPECTS CAPTURED IN CHECHNYA

GROZNY, June 12 (RIA Novosti) - Federal forces in Chechnya have dispersed a five-strong rebel group in a combat operation in the Urus-Martan District, reports the Russian Regional Command for Operations in the Northern Caucasus. Traces of blood and sacks with food, sleeping bags and a satellite phone were reportedly found on the combat scene.

In a subsequent raid, security forces tracked down and detained three presumed members of the rebel group, including Isa Mutiyev, 19; Ilias Abubakarov, 20; and Khazir Vidayev, 17. A probe has been launched to check up on the rebel suspects' complicity in crimes committed in Chechnya earlier. Search is on for other rebels affiliated with the group.

Ibrahim Zizayev, a rebel implicated in the murder of a criminal police chief in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan District in March 2004, has been liquidated in a security raid on the settlement of Samashki, the Regional Command reports. The gunman opened fire on the security troop, but got heavily wounded as they returned fire, and died of the wounds on the way to hospital. A pistol found at the scene is believed to have been stolen by Zizayev from the police chief he allegedly slain in March. According to the Russian Regional Command for Operations in the Northern Caucasus, the man is suspected of a number of other terrorist and subversive acts in the Achkhoi-Martan District.