Kommersant reports that Russia has scored another success in its attempt to decapitate the Chechen leadership. Number three man Rizvan Chitigov was killed after venturing out from the wall recess he had been hiding in for the past three days.
He spent three days in a small cold recess hollowed out in the bearing
wall of the house from the side of the loggia and covered by a little
tiled hatch on the outside. “We tried getting into this ‘crypt’
ourselves,” the officer recalls, “and I must tell you, one can’t spend
even an hour there, let alone three days. The recess is so small that
an adult can sit there only on all fours.” As it became known later,
the militant left his hide-out only for several times – to have
something to eat, to come in contact with his accomplice (Chitigov’s Motorola
didn’t get the wireless signal in the brick recess) and go to the
toilet. Yesterday Rizvan Chitigov must have broken down: as the Special
Forces officers left, he hurried outside and dropped a tiled hatch on
the concrete floor. He opened gunfire on the policemen, didn’t strike
anyone, but he was killed at once by return shots instead.
Chitigov, who is also known by his nicknames, The Marine, The American and The Chemist, was believed to be almost on a par with Shamil Basayev and Dokku Umarov in the Chechen rebel leadership.
“Chitigov was one of the acknowledged militants’ leaders,” a source in
Chechen Interior Ministry says, “he was not inferior to Basayev and
Umarov. What is more, he was a role-model for those planning to join
the militants’ gangs. Therefore we can say that unlike the murder of
Maskhadov the elimination of Chitigov is a real victory.”
According to ITAR-TASS, Chitigov was behind the execution of four OSCE officials in 1999, and the 1999 bombing of Manazh Square in Moscow that injured 30 people.
Mosnews, meanwhile, gives more background on why Chitigov was nicknamed "The American". He had previously visited the United States, and was thought by some in Russia to have close links to the CIA:
The FSB, Russia’s domestic security service, suspected that Chitigov
had been maintaining ties with foreign intelligence services and was
himself a CIA agent, former FSB spokesman Aleksandr Zdanovich said in
April 2001.According to some reports, Chitigov had a green card — a permanent residence permit in the U.S.
Hat tip: Jarrod of East is East, West is West.
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