Russian security chief: top militant captured in North Caucasus

Russian security chief says top rebel captured

MOSCOW — A top militant leader accused of staging several terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus has been captured by the government forces, Russia’s security chief said Wednesday.

The Federal Security Service chief, Alexander Bortnikov, reported to President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday that Ali Taziyev — also known by his nom de guerre, Magas — had been captured by his agency.

Russian television stations showed footage of a bearded man in handcuffs, purportedly Taziyev, escorted on board an aircraft by security agents and then being led into a courtroom.

Taziyev has been accused of staging an attack by militants on police and government offices in the city of Nazran in 2004 that killed 79 people, as well as a suicide bombing of the police headquarters there in 2009 that killed 24 and injured more than 200.

Bortnikov said Taziyev also played a role in staging a 2009 suicide attack that seriously wounded Ingushetia’s regional president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

Russian media reports said that Taziyev, who was born in Ingushetia, had served as a police officer before switching over to the rebel side.

Russia’s volatile North Caucasus has been destabilized by violence stemming from two separatist wars in Chechnya. While large-scale battles between Chechen rebels and federal forces ended a decade ago, Islamic militants have continued to launch regular raids against police and other authorities in the region. They also staged terrorist attacks elsewhere in Russia, most recently twin suicide bombings on Moscow subway, which killed 40 people and injured 90 in March.