Russia: Secret Service Killed Rebel Leader, Paper Reports

Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who was killed in an explosion on Monday, was targeted by a member of the security services using a satellite-linked detonator and information from an unmanned spy plane, the Izvestia newspaper said yesterday.

A detonator with a small antenna was probably planted in a rebel truck full of explosives with the connivance of foreign arms dealers, security service veterans told the Russian daily. An operative up to 60 miles away detonated the explosives when he saw Basayev approach the truck in pictures beamed from a spy plane, the paper said.