MOSCOW (AFP) - Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, the symbol of resistance to Moscow's rule in the breakaway Muslim republic, has been killed by Russian forces, Russian officials and Chechen rebels announced.
The NTV television network broadcast video footage showing the shirtless body of a middle-aged man identified as Maskhadov, one of Russia's two most wanted men, lying on the ground amid debris.
It followed what a spokesman for Russian federal forces in the region said was a battle that occurred earlier in the Chechen village of Tolstoi-Yurt.
"Today in the republic of Chechnya (news - web sites) in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt an operation was carried out by special FSB forces during which the international terrorist and leader of armed bands Maskhadov was killed and his closest collaborators arrested," the head of the FSB intelligence service told President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) in remarks broadcast on national television.
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