Chechen leader orders own killing

CHECHEN rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov ordered his bodyguards to kill him to avoid being captured by Russian forces.

Officials had said previously that Maskhadov was killed when Russian forces cornered him in the bunker in the northern Chechen village of Tolstoy-Yurt.

According to the bodyguards, who were captured, Maskhadov said he did not want to fall into the Russians’ hands, Nikolai Shepel, deputy prosecutor general for southern Russia, said.