REBELS TARGET RUSSIAN AND CHECHEN SERVICEMEN…
Publication: North Caucasus Weekly Volume: 6 Issue: 5
Two militants who were planning a “large-scale” terrorist attack in Grozny were killed on February 1, a source in the headquarters of the Russian military in Chechnya told RIA-Novosti. According to the source, the militants were under the command of the rebel field commander Doku Umarov.
Moskovsky komsomolets reported on February 1 that three Russian servicemen were killed and one wounded when an armored personnel carrier traveling along the Tuskharoi-Khankala mountain road near the village of Gorgachi fell off a precipice after being fired on by unknown persons.
Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 31 that nine members of Chechnya’s presidential security service were killed when their cars were blown up by mines placed along the Kavkaz highway near the village of Alkhan-Kala in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district. A source in Chechnya’s Interior Ministry told the website that earlier reports that the deaths had taken place as the result of a car accident and that the victims were federal servicemen were incorrect. Alkhan-Kala residents, however, believe those killed in the cars were Russian troops. Meanwhile, Chechen rebels claimed they destroyed a convoy of three automobiles on the Rostov-Baku highway near the village of Alkhan-Yurt using a suicide bomber in a car. According to the separatist Kavkazcenter website, the bomber killed ten members of Chechnya’s security service and local officials. Chechnya’s Interior Ministry had claimed earlier that three cars on the Rostov-Baku highway were simply involved in an accident.
An official in the pro-Moscow Chechen administration told Agence France-Presse on January 25 that seven Russian soldiers had been killed and 11 wounded in attacks across the republic over the prior 24 hours. Three servicemen were killed and five wounded by gunmen while two soldiers were killed and three injured when a remote-controlled landmine was detonated under their truck in Grozny. Another landmine detonation killed one serviceman and wounded three in Shali, while a sapper was seriously injured attempting to defuse a mine and later died.
