SERVICEMEN AND REBELS DIE IN GUN BATTLES IN CHECHNYA

Two Russian servicemen were reportedly killed and three were wounded in a shootout with militants in Chechnya’s Kurchaloi district, Svobodanews.ru reported on February 6. The rebels, numbering eight, reportedly managed to escape. Meanwhile, three Grozny residents were detained on suspicion of having ties to rebel field commander Said-Emin Dadaev. Interfax reported on February 5 that a suspected rebel and a Chechen Interior Ministry officer were killed during a shootout in the village of Paroboch in Chechnya’s Shelkovskoi district. According to the news agency, Shelkovskoi district police officers conducted an operation to catch “an active member of an illegal armed group” – Salambek Bushuev, who was hiding in his mother’s house in the village. He put up resistance and was killed in the ensuing battle, during which an officer from a Chechen Interior Ministry special unit and Bushuev’s mother were also killed. Two other police officers were injured.

Kavkazky Uzel reported on February 5 that four rebels belonging to a group led by an Arab field commander named Yasir blew themselves up with grenades rather than surrender to security forces in Kurchaloi. The four militants were identified as Sulim Visarkhanov, Takhir Bagaev, Ali Dhabikhadzhiev and Asludi Musaev, emir of the Avtury jamaat (after the Shali district village of Avtury). On February 2, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a UAZ military jeep outside of Grozny, seriously wounding the driver.