Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov rewarded a woman who shot dead four Islamic militants several years ago after they killed her husband, a news report said Tuesday.
Kadyrov presented Lilia Asukhanova with the highest medal in the Chechen republic — named after Kadyrov himself — and also gave her a three-room apartment, Lenta.ru reported.
A street is due to be named after Asukhanova in her native village of Starye Atagi, and another street in a nearby village will be named after her late husband, Kadyrov wrote on his Instagram account.
Asukhanova was rewarded for her bravery after using her slain husband's weapon to shoot and kill the four armed militants who'd just murdered him while they were trying to flee in a car, Kadyrov said.
The official version of events says the killings took place on Aug. 5, 2004, when four militants stormed into Asukhanova's house — where the family lived with their four children — beat Lilia and shot her husband, Ramzan, while he was sleeping.
Several news agencies have reported a very different scenario, however.
In an interview with Asukhanova published in August 2004, Moskovsky Komsomolets said the incident actually occurred three years earlier, in 2001, and that Asukhanova had killed one attacker and wounded the others.
Two of the other attackers blew themselves up when they realized they'd been surrounded, and the third surrendered but later died from his wounds, that report said.
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