Russia Says Last Rebel Village in Dagestan Taken

in the west of Dagestan. „The troops entered (the village of) Chabanmakhi and plan to take over the village by the end of the day,“ a military spokesman in Dagestani capital Makhachkala said by telephone. He said that in a week of fighting 100 guerrillas had been killed. He put government casualties at 13 dead and 91 injured. Troops earlier this week seized the other two villages in central Dagestan where the rebels had dug themselves in. Federal forces were engaged in destroying isolated rebel positions in the mountains surrounding the villages of Kadar and Karamakhi and combing the area for rebel fighters. The move on the three villages was seen as an attempt by the authorities once and for all to deal with the problem of Moslem rebels in the region after the Chechen-led incursion. The incursion led by two prominent Chechen field commanders — Shamil Basayev and a man known only as Khattab — had been aimed at establishing Islamic rule in Dagestan, but the rebels retreated after two weeks of heavy artillery and air attacks. The Russian military has said the operation in central Dagestan was aimed at wiping out the Islamic rebel presence, which is seen in Moscow as a major threat to regional stability. Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo told a news briefing he hoped that the operation in the three villages would be completed in the next few days. Concern that the conflict might spread beyond the North Caucasus grew after 41 people were injured on Tuesday in Moscow when a bomb blast ripped through a shopping mall near the Kremlin. Russian security officials have said a possible link to the Dagestan crisis was among several leads being investigated but so far there had been no evidence to support any connection. They also said measures were being taken to monitor possible rebel activities in other parts of Dagestan. Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the FSB domestic security service as saying a group of rebels had been detained in the Buinaksk area of Dagestan, close to the conflict zone. He said the group, which consisted of five people, had provided reconnaissance information for the rebels.