Russia +Chechen Rebel Leader Killed+

Russia kills most-wanted warlord

MOSCOW, Russia — Russia’s most wanted man, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, has been killed in an operation by special forces, the state security chief told President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev said Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school attack in which 331 people, half of them children, were killed, was planning an attack to coincide with Russia hosting the G8 summit of world leaders this weekend.

CNN’s Matthew Chance said the killing was a massive victory for the security services and a huge blow for the rebel leadership.

Basayev, together with other Chechen fighters, was killed in Ingushetia, a region neighboring Chechnya, where rebels are battling for independence.

In a televised meeting with Patrushev, Putin described Basayev’s death as “deserved retribution” for Beslan and other attacks.

“This is deserved retribution against the bandits for our children in Beslan, in Budennovsk, for all these acts of terror they committed in Moscow and other Russian regions, including Ingushetia and Chechnya,” Putin said, according to Reuters.

A statement on website http://www.kavkazcenter.com said the Chechen rebel leadership was not making any comment yet, the news agency said.

The U.N. Security Council put Basayev on its official terrorist list last year after Washington classified him as a threat to the United States.

The FSB had stepped up the pressure on the country’s most wanted man by announcing a $10 million reward for information leading to the “neutralization” of him and separatist former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov said in 2004