A senior Russian prosecutor confirmed Monday that Chechen rebel field commander Ruslan Gelayev was killed in a clash with federal troops in Dagestan on Sunday.  

Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said that two former members of Gelayev's rebel unit have identified his body, found in the Dagestani Mountains bordering Russia's restive republic of Chechnya to the east, Interfax News Agency reported.

There have been reports about the death of Gelayev over the past few years, but all have proved inaccurate.

A high-ranking commander of the Russian Federal Security Service's border troops in the North Caucasus region said he is 100 percent sure that it was Gelayev's body.

He noted that rebels from Gelayev's gang that had been fighting Russian troops in the restive Caucasus region for more than four years and was destroyed in Dagestan in late last December, had identified the body.

The body was also identified by other people who had known Gelayev earlier, the unnamed official added.

Gelayev, 39, participated in the first war between Russian troops and Chechen separatists during 1994-1996. He played a prominent role in the second war since September 1999 against the federal forces.

Gelayev is the second Chechen rebel leader that died within a month.

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, former president of the breakaway Chechen republic accused of having contact with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, was killed in a car bomb on Feb. 13 in Qatar's capital city of Doha, where he moved to live three years ago.

Russia has accused him of being the mastermind of some separatist and terrorist acts and demanded his extradition. However, the Russian government has denied any involvement in the bombing.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2004)