Liberal Repercussion

AKHMAD KADYROV KILLED

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-5-2004_pg1_1

MOSCOW: Chechnya’s pro-Kremlin president Akhmad Kadyrov was killed on Sunday along with as many as 31 others in a bomb attack that dealt a grave blow to President Vladimir Putin’s effort to establish control over the republic.

The blast tore through a parade tribune at a packed stadium in the separatist capital as the republic’s top brass and spectators were watching a concert marking Victory Day celebrations commemorating the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. Casualty figures were unclear late on Sunday, as senior Russian and Chechen officials gave conflicting figures of between six and 40 dead in the attack.

A Chechen interior ministry spokesman told reporters that 32 people had died and 46 others had been injured at the sports stadium. But a senior Russian federal administrator Vladimir Yakovlev, whose district includes Chechnya, said six had died.

Russia’s top general in the region was also reported to have been seriously injured in the blast. Officials said his leg was amputated and he remained in grave condition in a Grozny hospital.

posted by Rei Toei @ 5:26 p.m.