VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - A senior Chechen warlord has been killed during an exchange of gunfire with pro-Russian Chechen forces in southeast Chechnya, a source in the pro-Russian Chechen administration said Wednesday.
Rizvan Chitigov died in the fighting about six kilometres (four miles) from the town of Shali while he was covering the retreat of two other fighters, who were with him at the time and who managed to hide in a nearby forest, the source said.
The pro-Moscow president of Chechnya, Alu Alkhanov, welcomed the news as a "very big success", according to the Interfax news agency.
The operation had been led jointly by armed militia led by Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and forces of the Chechen interior ministry.
Russian sources said the group of separatist fighters led by Chitigov, linked to the radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, had largely been wiped out in February near the Chechen capital Grozny. It numbered about 15 men.
03/23/2005 15:14 GMT