MOSCOW - Aslan Maskhadov, the president of separatist forces opposed to Russian rule in Chechnya and one of Russia's most wanted men, was reported killed on Tuesday.
Here is a chronology of the key dates in the more than five-year conflict in Chechnya, the second war in a decade between pro-Moscow forces and separatists in the mostly Muslim republic in the Caucasus:

1999
Oct 1: Russian forces enter Chechnya for the first time since the end of the 1994-1996 war, forcing the rebels to abandon almost a third of the country.
Oct 29: 50 people are killed as refugees fleeing towards Ingushetia are bombed.
Nov 12: Russian forces take the second Chechen town of Gudermes without resistance.
Nov 25: Start of the battle for Grozny, defended by 2,000 separatists.

2000
Feb 1: The rebels say they are withdrawing from Grozny, followed five days later by an announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Chechen capital has been liberated.
Feb 11: Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov calls for an all-out guerrilla war.
Feb 23: Human Rights Watch says more than 60 civilians were massacred in Grozny earlier in the month.
Feb 29: Russian forces seize Shatoi, the last major rebel stronghold in the southern mountains.
June 8: Putin places Chechnya under direct presidential administration and names former rebel leader Akhmad Kadyrov, a mufti who once called for a holy war against Moscow, as the leader of the pro-Russian administration.

2001
Jan 22: Putin gives the FSB security services, the former KGB, control of operations in Chechnya.
April 14: Putin makes his first visit to Chechnya since his election in March.
July: Russian prosecutors open an inquiry into a suspected "abuse of power" by Russian forces, as Putin acknowledges "irregularities" and "abuses" by the army.
Nov 19: First direct talks between envoys from Putin and Maskhadov, but the negotiations end without result.
Dec 30-Jan 1: More than 200 killed in a Russian operation east of Grozny.

2002
Aug 19: A Russian Mi-26 helicopter is shot down by rebels, killing 121 people.
Oct 24: Rebels take hundreds of people hostage in a Moscow theatre and demand an end to Russian military operations in Chechnya. A total of 130 civilians and 41 Chechen guerrillas die in the rescue operation, most from a deadly gas that Russian forces pumped into the theater.
Dec 27: About 80 people are killed when rebels drive two explosives-packed vehicles into the Chechen administration headquarters, destroying Russia's symbolic seat of power there.

2003
March 26: Nearly 90 percent of people in Chechnya vote in favour of rule from Moscow in a referendum even though hopes of ending the decade-long separatist conflict appear as remote as ever.
April 2: The Council of Europe calls for the creation of an international tribunal to try war crimes committed in Chechnya.
May 14: A suicide attack on a government building in Chechnya kills 60 people in one of the deadliest single attacks since conflict between separatist rebels and federal troops broke out.
May 16: Another suicide bomb attack in carried out by a woman during a religious parade in Chechnya kills 18. Akhmad Kadyrov, who was present, survives.
July 5: Suicide attack on a rock concert kills 20 people in Moscow.
July 25: A Russian army colonel receives a 10-year prison sentence for killing an Chechen teenage girl in Chechnya.
Oct 5: Akhmad Kadyrov is elected president of Chechnya in controversial poll, winning over 80 percent of the vote.
Dec 5: More than 40 people die in a bomb attack on a Russian commuter train just north of Chechnya.

2004
Feb 6: A powerful bomb rips through a packed Moscow subway train during the morning rush hour, killing 41 people.
May 9: Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a blast in a stadium in Grozny. At least 15 others are killed and dozens of others injured.
June 22: Rebels stage a coordinated overnight in neighboring Ingushetia against state targets, killing 90 people, most of them law enforcement officers.
Aug 22: Rebels stage an overnight raid against police targets in the capital Grozny a week before elections to replace Akhmad Kadyrov, killing some 50 police officers and up to 20 civilians, according to police sources.
Aug 29: Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov wins an election to replace Akhmad Kadyrov, getting more than 73 percent of the controversial vote.
Sept 1: Armed separatists take some 1,200 chilren, teachers and parents at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, and demand that Moscow withdraw troops from nearby Chechnya. The siege ends two days later in a chaotic shootout that kills at least 344 people, half of them children, and 31 rebels. The attack is later claimed by radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.

2005
March 8: Separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, now one of Russia's most wanted men, is killed in Chechnya, Russian news agencies report, quoting Russian federal forces in the northern Caucasus.
General Ilya Shabalkin is quoted by agencies as saying Maskhadov was killed in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt during fighting.
Maskhadov was reportedly hiding in a bunker under a building when he was killed.
Maskhadov was elected as president of Chechnya in 1997 in elections recognized by Moscow after the end of a disastrous 1994-96 war, although Russia has since branded him a terrorist.
He claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Russian forces in the region and was blamed by Russia for involvement in many other attacks on non-military targets including the Beslan school hostage massacre and the mass hostage-taking at the Moscow theater in 2002.

03/08/2005 16:54 GMT