The Hunt for Akhmat Kadyrov

The first attempt on Akhmat Kadyrov's life was carried out on October 26, 1998, in Grozny's Oktyabrsky District. A remote-control bomb went off at the building of the Muftiate of Chechnya just as Mufti Kadyrov was passing. His driver was injured as a result. Ichkerian officials accused Russian special services of sabotage. According to another theory, Wahhabis were responsible for the explosion.

On October 28, 1998, a bomb was discovered and neutralized on the mufti's motorcade route in Grozny.

On May 25, 1999, in Grozny a car carrying security guards traveling in Akhmat Kadyrov's motorcade was blown up.

On October 10, 1999, President of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov publicly called Akhmat Kadyrov a traitor and dismissed the mufti from his post because of political disagreements and his refusal to declare holy war against Russia. On November 28, 1999, he declared the former mufti enemy No. 1 and sentenced him to death for holding talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. At the same time, the Sharia Court of Chechnya pronounced an “official death sentence” on Akhmat Kadyrov.

In December 1999, Shamil Basaev and Khattab announced a reward of $100 000 for Akhmet Kadyrov's head and gave orders to eliminate him without a trial or investigation.

On May 1, 2000, guards arrested two people with a remote-control mine near Akhmat Kadyrov's house in the village of Tsentoroi.

On July 3, 2000, unknown persons fired machine guns at the Chechen leader's house in Tsentoroi. The gunmen escaped.

On August 7, 2000, a bomb was discovered near Akhmat Kadyrov's house in Tsentoroi.

On September 10, 2000, a mine was discovered near Akhmat Kadyrov's house in Tsentoroi.

On October 31, 2000, a suicide terrorist blew himself up near Akhmat Kadyrov's residence in Gudermes. By sheer luck, no one injured.

On November 11, 2000, another bomb was discovered near Akhmat Kadyrov's house in Tsentoroi.

On January 16, 2001, a terrorist was blown up as he was laying a mine on Akhmat Kadyrov's motorcade route.

On January 29, 2001, a bomb went off on Akhmat Kadyrov's motorcade route on the eastern outskirts of Gudermes. Seven guards were injured.

On September 3, 2001, about 400 g of TNT were exploded in a toilet in Government House in Grozny. At the time, Akhmat Kadyrov was holding a meeting in the building with the heads of the district administrations. The only victim of the explosion was a cleaning woman.

On the night of November 7, 2001, Akhmat Kadyrov's motorcade was ambushed and fired on as it passed through Argun. Three security guards were injured.

On May 9, 2002, the stand in Grozny's Dinamo Stadium where Akhmat Kadyrov was sitting was hit by fire from a grenade launcher. A police officer was injured.

On January 18, 2003, a mine was disarmed on Akhmat Kadyrov's motorcade route in Grozny's Minutka Square

On May 14, 2003, in the settlement of Iliskhan-Yurt a female suicide terrorist blew herself up in a crowd during celebrations of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, at which Akhmat Kadyrov was present. Eighteen people died, including 4 of Kadyrov's guards, and 145 people were injured. Kadyrov himself was unhurt.

On the night of May 20, 2003, Akhmat Kadyrov's motorcade was shot at in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt. A guard was injured.

On September 23, 2003, Akhmat Kadyrov told a press conference in Moscow that his security service had received information about preparations for a new assassination attempt “involving three female suicide terrorists”.

Attacks on Military and Civilian Officials in Chechnya

On October 6, 1995, the motorcade of commander of the joint federal forces Anatoly Romanov was blown up in a tunnel in Grozny. The general and three members of his retinue were seriously injured, and the general's aide Colonel Aleksandr Zaslavsky and his driver were killed.

On November 20, 1995, the motorcade of the head of Chechnya's government, Doku Zavgaev, was fired on in Grozny and a bomb was detonated on the curb. Six guards were injured.

On April 22, 1998, near the village of Pervomaiskoe Interior Ministry helicopters, one of them carrying acting RF Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, were fired on. One helicopter was damaged.

On January 14, 2000, the Mi-8 helicopter of commander of the eastern group of the joint forces Gennady Troshev was fired on during takeoff from Severny Airport in Grozny. The damaged helicopter made a forced landing. No one was injured.

On May 31, 2000, the deputy RF government representative in Chechnya Sergei Zverev and Deputy Mayor of Grozny Nursed Khabuseev were killed when their car was blown up by a radio-controlled mine just outside Grozny. Mayor Supyan Makhchaev was injured.

On December 16, 2000, the car carrying Chechyna's prosecutor, Vsevolod Chernov, and a car with Russian soldiers following him were shot at near the settlement of Germenchuk. Four of the servicemen were killed.

On April 14, 2001, deputy prosecutor of Grozny Vladimir Moroz was killed when his car came under fire in Grozny.

On September 3, 2001, a female suicide terrorist detonated about 400 g of TNT in Chechnya's Government House, where a cabinet meeting was going on. The officials were not injured.

On September 17, 2001, an Mi-8 helicopter with a General Staff commission on board was shot down in Grozny. Thirteen people were killed, including head of the 2nd department of the General Staff's Main Operational Directorate Major General Anatoly Pozdnyakov, deputy head of the RF Ministry of Defense's Main Personnel Office Major General Pavel Varfolomeev, and eight colonels.

On November 29, 2001, in Urus-Martan a female suicide terrorist fatally wounded military commandant of Urus-Martanovsky District, Major General Geidar Gadzhiev.

On January 16, 2002, Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya Ali Alavdinov was shot at in the entrance to his apartment building in the village of Mesker-Yurt but survived. On February 6, 2002, his car was blown up by a mine in the same place. His driver and bodyguard were injured.

On January 27, 2002, a helicopter was shot down in Shelkovsky District. Fourteen people were killed, including Russia's Deputy Interior Minister, Lieutenant General Mikhail Rudchenko, and deputy commander-in-chief of the RF MVD Interior Forces, Major General Nikolai Goridov.

On September 7, 2002, Mayor of Grozny Oleg Zhikov's motorcade came under fire on the Chechen side of the Chechen-Ingush border. The driver of an escort car was injured.

On October 10, 2002, a bomb went off in the building of the District Internal Affairs Office during a management meeting. Twenty-five people were killed.

On December 8, 2002, the car carrying the deputy head of Chechnya's administration, Usman Masaev, was hit by fire from machine guns and grenade launchers. Masaev was unhurt.

On December 27, 2002, KamAZ and UAZ cars packed with explosives rammed Chechnya's Government House in Grozny. Seventy people were killed and 310 were injured.

On May 12, 2003, in the settlement of Zhamenskoe in Nadterechny District, suicide terrorists blew up KamAZ cars packed with explosives at the buildings of the FSB's Chechnya office and the Nadterechny District Administration. Sixty people were killed and nearly 200 injured.

How They Kill Leaders in Rebellious Provinces

On January 21, 1981, in Armagh, Northern Ireland, IRA partisans shot and killed Speaker of the Ulster Parliament, Sir Norman Stronge and his son James, a police officer, in their own home. The organizer of the murders, James Linogh, was killed on May 8, 1987 in Lafgalle during an attempted terrorist attack.

On January 26, 1996, in the city of Jammu, there was an attempted assassination of the governor of the province of Jammu and Kashmir, Krishna Rao. Mr. Rao was at the local stadium, where he was reviewing a parade in honor of the Republic Day national holiday.

The forces had taken stringent security measures (attempts to assassinate governors in Kashmir are routine) and had carefully inspected the stadium buildings. The stadium was closed to unauthorized personnel two days before the event. However, the terrorists somehow managed to hide several remote-control bombs in it. One of the devices was fixed right under the podium where Krishna Rao was standing, and the rest were placed on his supposed escape route on the exit side. However, the terrorists mistakenly started detonating the bombs in reverse order, i.e., from the stadium exit to the podium. Mr. Rao was unhurt, but 9 people, including 6 police officers, were killed and nearly 50 people were injured. The terrorists were never found.

On February 6, 1998, Prefect of Corsica Jean-Claude Erignac was killed in the Corsican city of Bastia. The prefect, who was on his way to a concert at the Colistep Theater, was getting out of his car when the killer shot him in the back three times and then shot him twice more in the back of the head. The killer, one Ivan Colonna connected with Corsican separatists, was arrested in July 2003. An investigation is underway.

On December 10, 2000, there was an attempted assassination of Abdullah Puteh, governor of the rebellious Indonesian province of Aceh. Unknown assailants tossed a grenade through the window of the governor's home in the city of Banda Aceh. No on was hurt. On September 5, 2002, a group of partisans attacked the governor's motorcade in the northern part of the province near Sinardi. Guards beat off the attack, and the governor was unhurt. Separatists in the province are suspected of the assassination attempts.

On February 19, 2001, in Erbil, northern Iraq, partisans of the Kurdish Worker's Party fighting to separate Kurdish territories from Iraq killed the governor of Erbil Province, Franso Hariri. The governor was shot in his car on the way to the district administration building.

On February 27, 2004, there was an attempted assassination of the Chief Minister (Governor) of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammed Saeed. The governor was speaking at a meeting in a local school, when someone in the crowd fired a shot at him from a tube grenade launcher. One schoolgirl was killed, and four other children were injured. Fighters of the radical wing of the All-Party Freedom Conference (Hurriyat), the largest association of Kashmiri separatist parties, are suspected of the terrorist attack.