Saudi al Qa'eda envoy killed in Chechnya

Russia on Friday announced killing al Qa'eda's top envoy in the North Caucasus, a Saudi militant said to have channelled foreign financing for insurgents and planned devastating suicide attacks.

Security officials identified the militant - known by the nom-de-guerre of Moganned - as a "religious authority" and top field commander responsible for the most recent bombings on Russian soil.

"Almost all acts of terror using suicide bombers in the last years were prepared with his involvement," a spokesman for the National Anti-Terror Committee said in a televised statement.

The guerrilla was killed Thursday in a clash with security forces in Chechnya that also claimed the lives of two other militants, it said.

The committee said Moganned had been operating in the Northern Caucasus since 1999 and by 2005 he had emerged as the main "coordinator" for handling money that was coming in from abroad to support the militant underground.

He had also served under under notorious fellow Arab-born militant Khattab until his death in a clash with security forces in 2002.

Russia this week also claimed killing Israpil Validzhanov, a militant who reportedly served as the right-hand man of Doku Umarov -- the self-proclaimed leader of the Islamist resistance.

Analysts believe the guerrillas have splintered since the last war in Chechnya ended just under a decade ago and evolved into a low-intensity campaign that also covers the neighbouring regions of Ingushetia and Dagestan.

But the elimination of the top al Qa'eda figure in Chechnya and Umarov's main representative in Dagestan would deliver a twin blow that could temporarily break down rebel lines of command.

The rebel-linked kavkazcenter.com website confirmed that Moganned was one of the most influential militants in Chechnya who had previously fought in wars ranging from Bosnia to Afghanistan.

"In recent years, he primarily fought in the east of Chechnya," kavkazcenter.com said.

But the head of the Chechen al Qa'eda and Umarov -- often labeled as Russia's enemy number one -- had a public falling out last year that has apparently prompted the two to compete for influence by staging ever-more deadly attacks.

The National Anti-Terror Committee committee said Moganned was planning in the coming weeks to ship a large group of rebels through the mountain gorges that separate Chechnya from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Its leadership has had difficult ties with Russia after the two sides' brief war in 2008 and is often accused of turning a blind eye to guerrillas who reportedly use the republic as a base for staging North Caucasus attacks.

Moganned hoped the new delivery of rebels would enable him to establish "full control over the rebel movement in the North Caucasus," the Russian National Anti-Terror Committee official said.

Moscow has been rocked in the past year by a bombing at the country's busiest airport that killed 37 in January 2011 and a twin suicide attack that claimed 40 lives during morning rush hour on the metro in March 2010.

But both of those strikes were claimed by Umarov -- a man who himself has emerged unharmed after reported Russian claims of his elimination.

The kavkazcenter.com website cast some doubt on Russia's latest claim by citing sources as saying that no fighting had taken place in the village on the day that the al Qa'eda leader was reportedly killed.

"We have so far received no official reports from the mujahedin command about Shahadah Emir Moganned," the website said.