Chechen rebel leader 'killed by bodyguards': Russia

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

Nikolai Shepel, deputy prosecutor general for southern Russia, said Maskhadov told his guards to shoot him dead when federal law enforcement troops began storming the basement bunker he was hiding in on March 8.

Officials had said previously that Maskhadov was killed when Russian forces cornered him in the bunker in the northern Chechen village of Tolstoy-Yurt, but gave few other details of the operation.

According to the bodyguards who were captured, Maskhadov said he did not want to fall into the Russians’ hands, Shepel said.

“I can blow myself up, meaning that you also will die, and you don’t need it,” Shepel quoted Maskhadov as telling his companions. “You can surrender, but I can’t do that.”