Russia names 'foreign militants'

The passports of the dead contained Georgian visas

Russia says a German, three Turks and an Algerian were among fighters killed in a raid on a Chechen rebel base.

Kremlin spokesman on Chechnya Sergei Yastrzhembsky said all had Georgian visas, and repeated claims that Georgia was a "passage-way for terrorists".

He named the dead as German Thomas Carl Fischer, Turkish citizens Halim Oz, Mustafa Salli and Naim Dag, and Algerian Mohamed Kadour.

The raid took place on 23 November near the village of Serzhen-Yurt.

Chechen separatists fought a war for independence between 1994 and 1996, and have been fighting Russian troops since they returned to the republic in late 1999.

Georgia 'network'

Mr Yastrzhembsky played journalists a videotape showing Russian troops walking among bodies lying on the ground in a forest.

He said federal forces had surrounded the rebel base and killed all the militants inside.

Georgia was and remains a passage way for terrorists striving to penetrate Russian territory Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky

The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that rebels in Chechnya have close links with al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

Georgian authorities insist that now there are no rebels in Chechnya, but Mr Yastrzhembsky strongly disagreed.

"Georgia was and remains a passage way for terrorists striving to penetrate Russian territory through the Pankisi Gorge," Mr Yastrzhembsky said.

"For such a number of terrorists to enter the territory of the Russian Federation, there must be an established network organising the transport of these people to the territory of Chechnya."

He spoke as Georgia's acting president, Nino Burjanadze, travelled to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.