ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, blamed by Russia for last year's school hostage crisis and other deadly terrorist acts, has been killed during a raid, the head of the Federal Security Service told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. One report said he was killed accidentally by his bodyguards.

The shirtless body of the gray-bearded Maskhadov, lying on a concrete floor, was shown on Russia's NTV channel.

The death of Maskhadov, 53, would be a coup for Russia in its conflict with the Chechens and a political boost for Putin after a series of setbacks - from brutal terrorist attacks in Russia last year that killed 430 people to the loss of his preferred candidate in the Ukrainian presidential dispute.

But even beyond any possible revenge by Chechens, there could be longer-term implications because Maskhadov was the most prominent voice for moderation among the rebels and commanded respect in many European countries. His killing might have closed off the clearest path to talks ending the bloodshed that has raged in Chechnya for much of a decade.

Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for Russian forces in the region, said Maskhadov was killed when federal forces blew up a bunker in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village in northern Chechnya that generally has been under the tight control of the Kremlin.

The Interfax news agency, citing Chechnya's Kremlin-backed deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, also reported that Russian forces intended to take Maskhadov alive, but he was killed by careless weapons-handling by his bodyguards.