Islamist militants have claimed responsibility for the Moscow killing of Yury Budanov, a former colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen girl, the insurgency-affiliated Kavkaz Center web site said Saturday.
The web site cited sources in Chechnya as saying the Riyadus-Salikhiyn battalion carried out the June 10 attack.
Budanov was stripped of his rank as an army colonel and convicted in 2003 of strangling 18-year-old Elza Kungayeva during a tour of duty in Chechnya. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but won early release in 2009.
The Riyadus-Salikhiyn battalion has taken responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school massacre and a September market bombing in Vladikavkaz.
(Reuters)
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