Chechen policemen working for Russian authorities found beheaded

NAZRAN, Russia - A Muslim cleric was gunned down in Chechnya on Friday, hours after urging peace, and two Chechen police officers working for Russian authorities were found beheaded.

The police officers were found Thursday along with the bodies of two civilians who had been shot to death near the town of Argun, nine miles east of the Chechen capital Grozny, officials said.

Umar Idrisov, an imam or Muslim leader, was shot and killed by attackers who burst into his home in Urus-Martan in southwestern Chechnya. Local officials said that Idrisov was an opponent of the Islamic fundamentalists who make up a significant part of the rebel forces, and that he had just given a sermon calling for peace.

''He was a pure man with pure thoughts,'' said Shirvani Yasayev, head of the Urus-Martan administration. ''It's a pity we failed to protect him.''

The killing was more evidence of the rebels' determination to punish Chechens they view as traitors.

Russian forces took control of most of the rebellious region in a military operation that began in September. But Russian officials have struggled to create a pro-Moscow Chechen force, and independence fighters have sometimes targeted pro-Moscow Chechens as well as Russian soldiers and officials.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has named another Muslim clergyman, Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov, as civilian administrator in the region. The mufti is viewed with suspicion by many Chechens, who consider him Moscow's puppet.

He has reportedly been the target of assassination attempts, and his son was wounded by a remote-controlled bomb which Kadyrov blamed on rebels.

The Kremlin's spokesman for Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said Friday that Chechen Vice President Vakha Arsanov has offered a reward to militants for the capture of Kadyrov.

In Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city, the administrative chiefs of several Chechen regions met to prepare a statement denouncing Kadyrov, focusing on his support of separatists in the 1994-96 Chechnya war.

''Nobody has heard that he has recognized his share of guilt in the deaths of dozens of thousands of people,'' a draft of the statement said.

Meanwhile, Russian artillery pounded suspected rebel positions in the southern mountains Friday after another night of hit-and-run attacks on Russian checkpoints.

Russian troops were expelled from Chechnya in a 1994-96 war with independence fighters. They re-entered the republic after Islamic militants based there seized several villages in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan, and after about 300 people died in apartment bombings the government blames on Chechens.