GROZNY, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - Warlord Akhmed Avdorkhanov, a close associate of terrorist leader Aslan Maskhadov, was killed in Chechnya," Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said Saturday. "Shamil Basayev's men killed Akhmed Avdorkhanov," he said adding that Basayev had made many attempts to eliminate Avdorkhanov.
He also said that Basayev and Avdorkhanov had quarreled over money. "Foreign sponsors sent $1.5 million to finance terrorist activities in Chechnya and Basayev killed Avdorkhanov to seize this money."
"He [Avdorkhanov] was Basayev's ideological opponent and an ardent adversary of Wahhabism," Kadyrov said. "He was also against the subjection of Chechen militants to foreign mercenaries."
According to the Chechen law enforcement bodies, Avdorkhanov commanded the so-called eastern front of Ichkeria (the name that Chechen separatists gave to Chechnya). He was Maskhadov's security boss.
