Chechen rebel "president" Saidullayev beheaded

Saidullayev

"Yes, I confirm this information," Muslim Khuchiyev, a minister without portfolio in the Chechen government, told AFP.

Russian media said Saidullayev was killed in a "special operation" that took place in the Chechen city of Argun, east of the Chechen capital Grozny. No further details on that operation were immediately available.

Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov characterized the killing of Saidullayev as a major success in the Russian fight against Chechen rebels, Interfax news agency said.

"The terrorists have practically been beheaded," Interfax quoted him as saying. "They have been dealt a decisive blow from which they will never recover."

The Kremlin-backed Chechen president, Alu Alkhanov, hailed the reported killing of Saidullayev.

"He was never any kind of president," Interfax quoted Alkhanov as saying.

"He was the leader of a group of bandits. He and his accomplices have the deaths of many peaceful civilians on their conscience and his liquidation clearly demonstrates the end that terrorists in Chechnya will come to."

Saidullayev, thought to be in his mid- to late-30s, was chosen in March 2005 to succeed the previous Chechen rebel "president", Aslan Maskhadov, after he was also killed by Russian special forces.

Chechen rebels said at the time that Saidullayev was Maskhadov's hand-picked successor as commander-in-chief and political leader of their movement, though he was a little-known figure then was always overshadowed by Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, who remains at large.

At the time of his nomination as rebel president, Saidullayev had almost no battle experience, had reportedly served on Chechnya's Islamic sharia court, and was a virtual unknown to most Chechens.

Akkhmed Zakayev, a former minister in Maskhadov's Chechen government who now lives in exile in Britain, described Saidullayev at the time as "a very balanced, very responsible person who enjoys wide authority among the resistance."