The core of the rebel unit that attacked a number of Ingush communities on the night of June 21 were men reporting to warlord Doku Umarov who acts in Chechnya, a high-ranking Ingush official said. \"According to the latest information, including evidence provided by witnesses, the core of the attackers were Doku Umarov\'s fighters,\" acting Ingush Interior Minister Beslan Khamkhoyev told Interfax on Friday. Khamkhoyev, however, said it was unclear whether Umarov had personally led the rebels in the attack. He also declined to comment on media reports that prominent warlord Shamil Basayev could have been among the raiders. The acting minister confirmed that the rebels retreated from Ingush territory towards the Chechen community of Bamut and the Georgian border. \"Our patrols followed these routes and found clear evidence that people had passed through there and that the wounded had been dragged there,\" he said. Chief of the Federal Security Service\'s (FSB) department for Ingushetia Sergei Koryakov earlier told Interfax that over 200 people were involved in the raid on Ingushetia. \"Among them were Chechens, Ingush residents and other people, presumably mercenaries,\" he said. \"Witness testimony has confirmed the possibility of mercenaries fighting alongside the guerillas since some of the attackers spoke Arabic,\" Koryakov said. Chief of the Kabardino-Balkarian Interior Ministry\'s organized crime department Felix Shurdumov said at a ministry meeting on Friday that there may have been residents of Kabardino-Balkaria among the raiders. The Chechen Interior Ministry denied reports that most of the attackers had already fled to Chechnya from Ingushetia. Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Sultan Satuyev told Interfax that the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia had been reinforced. Another deputy interior minister, Ruslan Alkhanov, told Interfax that a large-scale operation to search for the raiders had been launched in Grozny. Rebel units reportedly numbering up to 200 men attacked the Ingush communities of Nazran, Karabulak, and Sleptsovskaya late on June 21. According to the Ingush government, 98 people, mostly policemen, FSB officers, and border guards, were killed in clashes with the rebels, and 104 others were wounded. (Interfax)