Chechen Militant Threatens Turkey After Killings

Doku Umarov

Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov has threatened Turkey with unspecified retaliatory measures after the killing of a number of Caucasus militants on Turkish soil.

Umarov, in a video posted on the Kavkaz Center website, which serves as a mouthpiece for Chechen militants, alleged the militants were killed by Russian agents whose activities had been deliberately tolerated by the Turkish secret services.

In September, three Caucasus men were shot outside a mosque in Istanbul.

Russian investigators later said two of them were Chechens and suspects in the deadly bombing of a Moscow airport this year.

Umarov, who leads the Caucasus Emirate group that wants to set up a breakaway Islamic state in the Russian Caucasus, has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks in Moscow, including the Moscow airport bombing, which killed 37 people in January.

compiled from agency reports