A former bodyguard of notorious Chechen warlord Doku Umarov was killed by Russian special forces in Chechnya, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said Monday.
Rustam Saliyev, who from 2008 to 2011 served as a personal protector of "the leader of the North Caucasus bandits," according to the anti-terrorism committee, was reportedly killed in a special operation in the rural Achkhoi-Martanovsky district of southwestern Chechnya.
Russia has fought two bloody civil wars in Chechnya since the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991. But, while insurgency remains a pressing issue in neighboring parts of the North Caucasus, fighting in Chechnya has vastly diminished under strong-arm leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
On Wednesday, the insurgent chieftain Umarov urged his followers to compromise the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) from Chechnya.
Kadyrov, in a prompt response, vowed that Umarov would be killed. On Monday, he announced that Saliyev, who had been on a federal wanted list for terrorism, was "eliminated."
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