A week of heavy fighting between Russian troops and Chechen rebels has left dozens, perhaps hundreds dead.
A series of attacks by Chechen rebels in the days leading up to the New Year has lead to intensified Russian efforts against the Chechens, with severe fighting taking place in the capital Grozny and in villages southeast of the devastated city.
Russia’s RTR state television said clashes erupted in Kurchaloi district, 25 miles southeast of Grozny, a day ahead of New Year's celebrations -- Russia's biggest holiday. The station showed tanks taking part in a ``special operation'' and quoted Russia's top officer in Chechnya, General Vladimir Moltenskoi, as saying a member of the FSB domestic intelligence agency had been killed, and eight other servicemen were injured, reported AP.
Fighting intensified over the next week, and although Russian and Chechen sources give very different accounts of each other’s losses, there is no doubting that fighting is very heavy.
The Russian military told Reuters on Thursday that it had killed more than 100 rebels, and that new tactics had tightened the noose around the insurgents. Interfax news agency said a number of Chechen field commanders had been killed in the operation, including one identified as Abdul Sayd Magomed, said to have specialized in killing residents working for the local pro-Moscow administration. It put Russian losses at two dead and 11 wounded.
However, an official in the pro-Moscow Chechen administration told the Associated Press that Russian forces on Thursday battled rebels in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt, 15 miles southeast of Grozny. Fifteen Russian servicemen and about 15 rebels were killed in the operation to flush rebels out of the mountainous region, along with ten residents who died in the exchange of fire between the two sides. In addition, five Russian soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in attacks and land mine explosions throughout Chechnya.
Chechen rebel sources reported fighting was still raging around Tsatsan-Yurt, scene of many of the past days’ clashes, and said 40 Russian troops had died, with about the same number injured. Six residents were reported killed and 10 injured in the latest fighting. Earlier rebel reports put their own losses at eight dead and three missing.
After fighting a loosing war agaist the Chechen rebels, Russia withdrew its troops from Chechnya in 1996. However, in September 1999 explosions in Moscow apartment buildings though to have been caused by the Chechens killed 300 people, and the Russian government sent in its forces again. Since then, Russians and Chechens have fought an ongoing guerilla war throughout the country. (www.albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
