Assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev

On February 13, 2004, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was assassinated when a bomb ripped through his SUV in the Qatari capital, Doha. Yandarbiyev was fatally wounded and died on the way to the hospital while his 13-year-old son Daud was seriously injured and arrived in critical condition. According to some reports, two of his bodyguards were killed as well.^[1]

It was initially unclear who was responsible for the blast, but suspicion fell on SVR or GRU, denying any involvement, or internal feuding among the Chechen rebel leadership. Aslan Maskhadov's separatist Foreign Ministry condemned the assassination as a "Russian terrorist attack", comparing it to the 1996 attack that killed Dzhokhar Dudayev. The car bomb led to Qatar's first anti-terrorism law, declaring lethal terrorist acts punishable by death or life imprisonment.