Chechnya on radioactive alert, Russians arrest 4 militants
GROZNY. Dec 18 (Interfax) - Four members of criminal armed groups have been arrested in a series of police sweep operations in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, Chechen Interior Minister Col. Ruslan Alkhanov told Interfax.
Umar Khaletov, a member of the criminal armed group led by Isa Ashakhanov, has been arrested in Samashki. Khaletov, who had been on the wanted list as a suspect in an attack on a polling station located in a local school in 2004, provided information about a weapons cache in which an artillery shell, four radio-detonators, two electric detonators, a grenade, an improvised bomb and ammunition were discovered.
Two militants, Magomed and Isa Khasanov, have been arrested in the village of Salazhi in Urus-Martan district. Both were members of a criminal armed group led by Albek Bugayev.
Another militant, Khalid Sultanov, a member of the Musa Madayev criminal armed group, was arrested in Grozny in an operation conducted in the city's Leninsky district, the Chechen interior minister said.
Chechnya on Radioactive Alert
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Sunday, 18 December: 11.44 CET) - Prosecutors in Chechnya have opened a criminal investigation after finding serious levels of radioactivity at a chemical factory, Russian media reported.
Investigators in Chechnya told reporters that the radiation - which in one place was reportedly 58,000 times the usual level - posed a grave danger to residents of the capital, Grozny.
According to prosecutors, between 27 and 29 uncontrolled radioactive elements were emitting radiation at the plant.
Russia’s Rossiya state television reported that the radiation leaks were at about half the levels at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after a massive explosion there in 1986. The report did not cite any sources for that information.
Prosecutors in Chechnya said the radioactive material had been identified as Cobalt-60, an isotope of cobalt used as a source of radiation in food processing and hospitals. They also said Cobalt-60 was one of the most likely elements to be used to make a “dirty bomb”.
Umar Khaletov, a member of the criminal armed group led by Isa Ashakhanov, has been arrested in Samashki. Khaletov, who had been on the wanted list as a suspect in an attack on a polling station located in a local school in 2004, provided information about a weapons cache in which an artillery shell, four radio-detonators, two electric detonators, a grenade, an improvised bomb and ammunition were discovered.
Two militants, Magomed and Isa Khasanov, have been arrested in the village of Salazhi in Urus-Martan district. Both were members of a criminal armed group led by Albek Bugayev.
Another militant, Khalid Sultanov, a member of the Musa Madayev criminal armed group, was arrested in Grozny in an operation conducted in the city's Leninsky district, the Chechen interior minister said.
Chechnya on Radioactive Alert
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Sunday, 18 December: 11.44 CET) - Prosecutors in Chechnya have opened a criminal investigation after finding serious levels of radioactivity at a chemical factory, Russian media reported.
Investigators in Chechnya told reporters that the radiation - which in one place was reportedly 58,000 times the usual level - posed a grave danger to residents of the capital, Grozny.
According to prosecutors, between 27 and 29 uncontrolled radioactive elements were emitting radiation at the plant.
Russia’s Rossiya state television reported that the radiation leaks were at about half the levels at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after a massive explosion there in 1986. The report did not cite any sources for that information.
Prosecutors in Chechnya said the radioactive material had been identified as Cobalt-60, an isotope of cobalt used as a source of radiation in food processing and hospitals. They also said Cobalt-60 was one of the most likely elements to be used to make a “dirty bomb”.
posted by Marko at 12/18/2005 07:27:00 PM
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