Chechen Separatist Leader Is Slain

Maskhadov, 53, who served as Chechnya's president during a period of self-rule in the late 1990s, headed the anti-Russia Chechen resistance.

He was viewed by Moscow as a terrorist, but he was also recognized as the only Chechen guerrilla leader moderate enough to strike a deal with the Kremlin yet influential enough to make it stick with rebel fighters.

Moscow had accused Maskhadov and more radical guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev of ordering the takeover of a school last year in the southern Russian town of Beslan, in which at least 326 hostages died. Maskhadov denied any involvement; Basayev claimed responsibility.

It was never clear whether Maskhadov exercised control over Basayev, who now appears positioned to dominate the rebel movement.

Russian television Tuesday showed a body identified as that of Maskhadov: gray-bearded, bare-chested and lying in a pool of blood, his arms spread.

Federal Security Service chief Nikolai P. Patrushev spoke to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin of the incident in a scene broadcast on television.

"A special operation was carried out by us in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt as a result of which the international terrorist and leader of the rebel group Aslan Maskhadov was killed," Patrushev said. "The body is in the hands of Federal Security Service investigators."

There were contradictory reports, however, over how Maskhadov died and assertions that authorities had meant to take him alive, raising questions about whether the operation had been botched.

The village of Tolstoy-Yurt, 12 miles north of the Chechen capital of Grozny, is in an area largely controlled by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces. Federal and local Chechen forces were directed by a recently captured guerrilla to the house where Maskhadov was hiding, Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told the Russian news agency Itar-Tass.

Kadyrov said a $10.8-million reward offered for information on Maskhadov's whereabouts had not been paid, apparently because the information was not provided voluntarily. Kadyrov added, however, that the offer still stood for information leading to Basayev.