Chechen Bombers Had Tickets To Moscow

The authorities have shot dead five insurgents — two of whom may have been planning a terrorist act in Moscow and one of whom was wanted on suspicion of organizing a failed assassination attempt on Ingushetia’s leader, officials said Saturday.

Police near Chechnya’s second-largest city, Gudermes, tried to arrest two men they suspected to be rebel fighters on Friday night, but the men resisted detention and were shot dead, the Chechen Interior Ministry said.

The suspected insurgents were found with explosives strapped to them, and were carrying hand grenades and train tickets to Moscow, the ministry said in a statement.

Police were investigating whether an act of terrorism was planned for the train or for somewhere in Moscow, or whether the suspected rebels had accomplices.

• "Bombers Had Tickets To Moscow", Moscow Times, 9/7/09.
• "Chechen Terrorism", Council on Foreign Relations, 8/5/08.
  
• "The face of Chechnya's insurgency - Europe - International Herald Tribune", NY Times, 7/10/06.
• "First Chechnya War - 1994-1996", Global Security, webpage.
• "Second Chechnya War - 1999-???", Global Security, webpage.