Russia kills top al-Qaeda militant in Chechnya

Hot on the heels of the United States special forces operation that ended in the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, Russia says its own forces have killed a top al-Qaeda militant in Chechnya.

Russia’s anti-terror committee said on Wednesday that the country’s security forces in Chechnya had killed Doger Sevdet, an al-Qaeda leader who co-ordinated foreign rebels in the North Caucasus.

Russian security forces have killed a top Al-Qaeda militant in Chechnya who coordinated foreign rebels in the North Caucasus, the national anti-terror committee said on Wednesday.

Sevdet was Turkish citizen who had taken on the nom de guerre of Abdullah Kurd and “was an envoy of al-Qaeda in the Northern Caucasus,” it told Russian news agencies.

It said that Sevdet, who arrived in the region in 1991, had taken part in the planning of many acts of terror and attacks on members of the public and security forces.

His death comes two weeks after Russia killed another top al-Qaeda militant, a Saudi operative known as Moganned in what analysts said was one of its biggest security successes in the region for years.

It also follows the killing in Pakistan by US forces of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in an operation hailed by the Kremlin as a “serious success in the war against international terrorism”.—AFP