were dispersed. According to Russia, 30-40 Chechen fighters were killed in shootouts and air attacks and five were captured (though Chechen sources said that seven fighters were killed and five were missing). 17 Russian servicemen were also reported killed. Among those killed was Roddy Scott, a British freelance reporter who travelled with the rebels and was allegedly shot by a Russian sniper while attempting to surrender. Gelayev himself was severely injured and for a time being was out of action. In an October 2002 interview, he said he would "continue to fight until not only our country but all the nations of the Caucasus are freed from the double-headed eagle [of Russia]." Death In the winter of 2003–2004, Gelayev led a raid from Georgia into the mountainous Tsuntinsky District region of the Russian republic of Dagestan, during which 20-30 of his fighters (Chechen and Dagestani, reportedly including Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev) and 15 Russian servicemen were reported to have died in the fighting and landslide accidents, while five rebels were captured. According to the official story, Gelayev died on February 28, 2004, following a skirmish with a two-man patrol of the Border Guard Service of Russia that he had encountered while attempting to cross the border into Georgia alone. Gelayev shot and killed both guards (First Sergeant Mukhtar Suleimanov and Sergeant Abdulkhalik Kurbanov, both from Dagestan, who were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation), but he himself then died soon after as a result of a serious injury he suffered during the shootout, having been hit by a rifle burst in his left arm. After walking about 100 meters, Gelayev cut off his own mangled hand, but died from blood loss. However, according to the Kavkaz Center version, Gelayev fought against a larger group of Russian troops and was killed after his arm was shot-off by heavy machine gun fire from a helicopter. In 2013, a retired Spetsnaz GRU Colonel Alexander Musienko claimed that he was aboard a helicopter which killed Gelayev and another Chechen fighter with gunfire and an avalanche caused by rockets already on December 28, 2003, but the corpse of Gelayev was only identified after being dug up from the snow in February 2004. According to Musienko, 20 Chechen fighters were killed and nine were captured and nine Spetsnaz GRU commandos under his command died in this battle, and that the official story of Gelayev's