Servicemen Killed and Wounded in Chechnya

A Russian serviceman was wounded in a bomb blast in the southern Chechen district of Itum-Kale, Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 12. The incident took place near the village of Gukhoi, where one law-enforcement officer was killed and several wounded in a September 3 rebel attack (Chechnya Weekly, September 6). A serviceman of the Defense Ministry’s Zapad (West) battalion was killed during an operation to detain a “dangerous criminal,” Interfax reported on September 10. Idris Satiev was killed when the driver of a vehicle stopped for an ID check shot him. Two other servicemen sustained wounds in the shootout and were hospitalized. Sources in the Chechen Interior Ministry told Interfax that the driver, who was killed by return fire, was a resident of the Groznensky district village of Pobedinskoye and was believed to have been an active member of a “criminal armed group.” Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 10 that two servicemen were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Grozny’s Oktyabrsky district. The website reported on September 8 that the emir of Grozny, Musa Mutiev, who was a member of the rebel group led by Rustam Basaev, a close associate of Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov and who was killed earlier this month (Chechnya Weekly, September 6), was killed by security forces.

Meanwhile, Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 13 that Bagap Tutakov, a resident of the Achkoi-Martan district village of Yandi kidnapped on September 10 by a group of gunmen in camouflage uniforms, was a deputy in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) parliament in 1995-1996 and had represented the ChRI parliament at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg.