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Chechen rebel commander apprehended by Russians

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February 11, 2001 

URUS-MARTAN-- (AP) - Russian Interior Ministry troops apprehended Chechen rebel commander Ali Zhabazov and 18 insurgents in a special operation, rebel sources and Russian officials said Saturday.

Zhabazov was taken into custody in a raid in the village of Shalazhi in southwestern Chechnya on Friday, an Interior Ministry spokesman told the ITAR-Tass news agency. Rebel sources said 18 suspected rebels were arrested along with Zhabasov.

According to the Interior Ministry, Zhabazov was a top lieutenant to Ruslan Gelayev, one of the most influential rebel commanders in Chechnya. He was in charge of resistance in the southwestern sector of the breakaway republic and had been Gelayev's top deputy since 1999, ITAR-Tass said.

Three Russian servicemen were killed and five were wounded in 17 rebel attacks on federal positions and outposts in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another three Russian soldiers were killed when their armored personnel carrier was attacked in the town of Vedeno, in southern Chechnya.

Russian warplanes bombed suspected rebel hideouts in the Vedeno region while Russian artillery shelled targets in Itum-Kale, Nozhai-Yurt and Kurchaloi in the south, the official said.

In Gudermes, Chechnya's second largest city, the head of the pro-Kremlin administration Saturday signed a decree making the first appointments to a new Chechen government.

The new government formed by Akhmad Kadyrov will have seven deputies in charge of 34 specialized ministries and agencies, the Interfax news agency reported.

A government made up of members from various nationalities has been formed in Chechnya for the first time since Russian forces returned to the republic, Kadyrov said.

Russian troops withdrew from Chechnya in 1996 at the end of a 20-months war against separatists, but returned to the republic in September 1999 in the wake of rebel incursions into neighboring Dagestan and the deaths of some 300 people in apartment bombings in Russia that officials blamed on the rebels. Rebel commanders denied any involvement.