The militant leader killed in Ingushetia on Wednesday was involved in planning terrorist attacks in the Russian North Caucasus republic, its president said Wednesday on Ekho Moskvy radio.
"One of the clear organizers of such attacks was eliminated," Ingush President Yunus-bek Yevkurov said. "The intelligence agencies did their jobs well."
Magomed Gardanov was killed in a special Federal Security Service (FSB) operation in Nazran, Ingushetia's main city. Three other people were injured in the operation, including a woman who later died in a hospital.
Gardanov was said to be "closely linked" to Said Buryatsky, a religious extremist leader who was killed on March 2. The FSB said he had been involved in a series of high-profile terrorist attacks, including on the Karabulak and Nazran police departments.
Russia celebrates the 65th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on Sunday May 9. On May Day, which Russia marked last Saturday, a bombing in the nearby North Caucasus republic of Kabardino Balkaria killed a World War II veteran and injured several other people at a horse race in Nalchik attended by a number of officials.
Also on Saturday, Yevkurov attended a judo tournament in Ingushetia at which a man was shot and killed when he tried to force his way into the venue with a hand gun.
Russian police and government officials are frequently the targets of militant attacks in the North Caucasus, where 11 police officers were injured in a grenade attack on a police station on Tuesday.
Following a double suicide bombing in Moscow in March, the Kremlin pledged to wage "a ruthless fight" against militant groups, but it has also acknowledged a need to tackle unemployment, organized crime, clan rivalry and corruption as causes of the ongoing violence in the North Caucasus region
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)
