Top Chechen Warlord Slain by Russian Special Forces

"Overnight, a special operation was carried out in Ingushetia... during which Shamil Basayev and other bandits who were preparing an attack were eliminated," FSB security service chief Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin in remarks broadcast on state television.

Putin congratulated Patrushev and those who took part in planning and carrying out the operation that resulted in Basayev's death, which he described as fair retribution for the attacks led by Basayev over the years.

"This is a just punishment of the bandits for our children in Beslan, in Budyonnovsk, for all the terrorist attacks that they carried out in Moscow and other regions of Russia including Ingushetia and the republic of Chechnya," Putin said, referring to major attacks of recent years.

The news will likely increase Putin's already enormous popularity in Russia and give him a boost as he prepares to welcome world leaders at the Group of Eight summit.

Huge explosion

Television news programs did not broadcast footage of Basayev's body as they have done following the killings in the past 18 months of several other top Chechen rebel figures, but officials indicated this may have been because his body was badly maimed in the special operation.

Bashir Aushev, deputy prime minister of the province of Ingushetia, said that Basayev, 41, was among suspected Chechen militants who were killed as they sat in cars alongside a large truck that was packed with explosives and detonated in the Ingush village of Yekazhevo early Monday.

"As a result of the blast, only pieces of two of the fighters were left," Interfax quoted Aushyev as saying. "Basayev was identified by fragments of his body. To the best of my knowledge, they identified him by his head."

"The liquidation of Basayev is an unbelievable success," Ramzan Kadyrov, the prime minister in the Kremlin-backed government of Chechnya, widely regarded as the most powerful figure in Chechnya, said in Grozny.

Basayev had been the target of one of the most intensive and prolonged manhunts ever mounted in Russia and a $10 million bounty had been offered for information that led to his capture or death.

But despite having a wooden leg after his right foot was blown off by a landmine, Basayev managed to elude capture for years and take part in brazen raids on key targets across much of Russia's North Caucasus region.

Blow to rebels

Experts agreed Basayev's death was a blow to the Chechen rebel fighters who have demanded independence for their land from the Russian Federation.

"A large terrorist offensive was planned for this summer and the death of the commander in chief will disrupt their plans," said Yulia Latynina, a commentator and respected Caucasus expert.

But Akhmed Zakayev, a representative of the Chechen rebel "government" who lives in Britain where he was granted political asylum, said the killing of Basayev "will in no way change" the situation in Chechnya.

"As long as the Chechen people exist, as long as a mutually acceptable relationship has not been established between Russia and Chechnya, there cannot be a lasting peace," Zakayev said in comments broadcast on the Moscow Echo radio station.