Chechen Rebels Raid Ingushetia; Minister Among Dead

Chechen rebels staged overnight raids in Ingushetia, bordering Chechnya in Russia's southern Caucasus region, the Ingush government said. At least 57 people including a cabinet minister were killed, Interfax news agency reported. Ingush Interior Minister Abukar Kostoyev and two prosecutors were among the dead, the government said in a statement posted on its Web site. About 60 people were injured, and the condition of 12 of them is serious, the government said. Forty-seven of the dead were law enforcement officers or military, Interfax said, citing Umarbek Galayev, acting Ingush prosecutor. ``The number 57 may be revised,'' Galayev told Interfax. ``This inhuman act was aimed not only against the Ingush people but against tens of thousands of Chechen refugees,'' Ingush President Murat Zyazikov said in a statement. The rebels wanted ``to destabilize the situation in the republic, widen the zone of military activity and sow panic among the peaceful population,'' he said. The mainly Muslim republic is in an area where the rebels want to establish an Islamic state. The raids on Nazran, Ingushetia's capital, and the towns of Karabulak and Sleptsovskaya began at about 11 p.m. local time yesterday, when about 100 rebels crossed from both Chechnya and the republic of North Ossetia, according to the Ingush government site. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the rebels ``need to be found and wiped out, and those who can be caught must be caught alive and brought to trial,'' Interfax news reported.