Moscow - Russia yesterday announced the death of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, after its troops recovered the body of the field commander who has been blamed for the 1998 beheading of four Westerners.
Russian television said several thousand troops had swooped on a village outside Grozny to encircle Barayev and his followers. Many of the rebels, including the warlord, were killed in six days of battles which ended on Sunday.
Barayev, one of the country's most wanted men and the first leading separatist chief to die in Russia's much vaunted drive to eliminate rebel commanders, has been accused of masterminding serial kidnappings for ransom. Officials said the body had been identified by relatives and would be handed over to them for burial. Chechen rebels acknowledged Barayev's death, saying "the commander of the Special Islamic regiment Arbi Barayev has become a shahid (martyr)".