MOSCOW, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian forces have killed a key al-Qaida member in charge of funding terrorist actions in southern Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday.

    Abu Dzeit, who held a prominent position among militant leaders, was killed in an operation launched by Russian security forces in the republic of Ingushetia on Wednesday, FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying.

    The troops attacked a house in an Ingushetian village and first killed two accomplices of Abu Dzeit, who were hiding in a special bunker. When the entrance of the underground blindage was discovered, he blew himself up, Ignatchenko said.

    Ignatchenko said the bunker contained large quantities of arms and ammunition, a mini-studio for making propaganda films and a lab for making explosive devices.

    "We can say that with the elimination of Abu Dzeit, a channel of funding terrorists in the North Caucasus and the rest of Russia has been blocked," he said.

    Investigators found out that Abu Dzeit, also known as Little Omar and Abu Omar, who was born in Kuwait, served as the al-Qaida representative in Ingushetia distributing funds from the international terrorist network, Ignatchenko said.

    Abu Dzeit, who had received special training at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, was also in charge of training bombers and suicide attackers and engaged in brainwashing militants.

    The spokesman said Abu Dzeit was personally involved in funding and planning several terrorist actions, including the armed attack on the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia last summer and hostage-taking raid on the Beslan school where over 330 people were killed last September.

    Russian authorities have launched intensified operations against terrorists and rebel groups since the Beslan tragedy.

    Federal forces uprooted a number of terrorist groups and killed three militants on Sunday in the restive North Caucasus region. All of them said they were under the control of notorious Chechen rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev, whom Russian authorities blamed for a number of terrorist attacks across the country.

    Russian troops carried out an operation overnight Monday against militants in breakaway Chechnya, killing two militants, said Major General Ilya Shabalkin, head of the anti-terrorist headquarters in the North Caucasus.

    The two, directly subordinate to Basayev and Maskhadov, had planned to launch terrorist actions in central Russia, said Shabalkin. Enditem