9 Hunters, Game Wardens found shot dead
Pastor Dale Morgan
*9 Hunters, Game Wardens found shot dead*
From correspondents in Caucasus, Russia
November 05, 2007 11:16pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
NINE hunters and forest wardens have been found bound and shot in the
head - possibly after running into guerrilla fighters - in Russia's
turbulent Caucasus mountains region, Interfax news agency quoted
officials as saying.
The authorities “are searching for criminals who on November 3 shot nine
hunters and wardens in a forest near Lechinkai village”, a spokesman for
the local Interior Ministry for Kabardino-Balkaria province said.
The victims, whose hands had been tied, were shot in the back of the
head, Interfax reported.
Interfax quoted the Kabardino-Balkaria prosecutor's office saying that
the huntsmen were possibly killed after stumbling on a mountain hide-out
used by guerrilla fighters.
“All possibilities are being considered. But the most likely is that the
hunters and wardens were killed by militants that they accidentally
met,” the source said.
According to different officials the nine bodies were found either near
or in a military dug-out used by militants, Interfax reported.
A law enforcement source told the news agency that the dug-out had been
designed to shelter a group of 10 to 13 people.
“The bandits, it seems, had enough time to go into the high mountains
and hide there,” the source said. Local special forces units had joined
the search for the killers, the source said, Interfax reported.
Kabardino-Balkaria lies in the centre of the troubled, mostly Muslim
North Caucasus, which also includes war-torn Chechnya.
Small pockets of Islamist militants and anti-government insurgents are
active through much of the mountainous region.