MOSCOW, March 30 (UPI) -- More testing is needed to determine whether Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov was among those killed in an assault Monday in Ingushetia, officials said.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the president of North Caucasus republic, said DNA testing was needed before making statements on the death of Umarov, considered the regional equivalent of Osama bin Laden, the Voice of Russia reports.
One of 17 gunmen killed by special operations forces was identified as a member of Umarov's inner circle, however. False reports of Umarov's death circulated early this year following airstrikes in Chechnya.
Russian counter-terrorism officials said the raid in Ingushetia targeted a base used by North Caucasus insurgents to train suicide bombers. Three Russian soldiers were killed in the attack, state-run news agency RIA Novosti adds.
Umarov claimed responsibility for a March 2010 attack on a subway station in Moscow that killed 40 people.
Russian investigators accused Umarov and Aslan Byutukayev of plotting the January attack at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow. The January attack killed 37 people. Those accused of planning the attack face up to 20 years in jail.
Russia has been fighting an insurgency in Muslim North Caucasus republics Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia for years following two bloody conflicts in Chechnya in the 1990s.
