Gunmen assassinated Abdulla Alishayev, a host on one of the most popular Islamic television stations in the Russian republic of Dagestan; he is the second journalist to be killed in the Caucasus this week. A third journalist, Miloslav Bitokov, editor-in-chief, of the independent weekly Gazeta Yuga, was severely beaten yesterday by unidentified men outside his apartment in the North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkariya. Russian forces killed five suspected Muslim rebels in the southern region of Dagestan.
