RUSSIAN FORCES CONTINUE TO SUFFER CASUALTIES

Deaths and woundings from combat and mine explosions continue to be daily occurrences in Chechnya.

On April 10 the Associated Press reported that six Russian troops and one police officer of the pro-Moscow administration had been killed in Chechnya over the previous twenty-four hours. Two other policemen were kidnapped.

The radio station Ekho Moskvy reported on April 11 that six Russian servicemen had died in an attack by rebel guerrillas on a motor convoy near the village of Samashki. One Russian armored vehicle was destroyed.

In the Urus-Martanovsky district, two federal soldiers died on April 13 when their vehicle struck a mine, the website Newsru.com reported the next day. Three were wounded by a mine explosion in the Shelkovsky district.

Two Russian servicemen were wounded on April 14 when a mine exploded in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. Three others were wounded when their automobile detonated a mine in the city’s Zavodsky district.