Key Ukraine rebel commander killed in 'act of terror'

A military chief of a self-proclaimed Russian-backed republic in eastern Ukraine was killed in an "act of terror" Wednesday, the latest victim of a string of similar attacks, local authorities said. The dead man was Mikhail Tolstykh, 36, head of the notorious "Somali" battalion and a leading commander of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, the rebels' spokesman told AFP.
"There has been an act of terror and Givi was killed," Eduard Basurin said, using the nom de guerre which Tolstykh was better known by.
He blamed Ukrainian security services but declined to provide more details. Local reports said Tolstykh's office was blasted by a flamethrower.
Rebel chief Alexander Zakharchenko accused the Ukrainian military of conducting the attack.
"The Ukrainians.can not defeat us on the battlefield, so they kill us in a malicious way," he said.
Kiev's SBU security service however denied that it was responsible, instead suspecting an internal operation to clear the rebel ranks.
"People tied to illegal armed groups are purged by special agencies beyond the line of contact," an advisor the SBU chief, Yuriy Tandit, told the 112 Ukrainian channel.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the killing "an attempt to destabilise the situation" in eastern Ukraine and also denied that Russia was in any way involved in it.
Rebel officials announced two days of mourning after Tolstykh's death.
In October, another well-known Donetsk military chief, Arseny Pavlov, was killed in a bomb attack.