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Rebels fire on Russian facilities in Chechnya |
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July 30, 2000
GROZNY, Russia (AP) - Chechen rebels attacked a Russian motorcade leaving the capital Grozny Saturday for the Argun gorge in southern Chechnya, damaging a truck and destroying a car. The motorcade had left the suburb of Khankala, where the Russian military headquarters is based, and was moving down the highway toward southern Chechnya when it was ambushed by the rebels near the village of Prigorodnoye, reporters at the scene said. The attackers fired a grenade launcher at a truck, badly damaging the vehicle, and a car was destroyed when it hit a land mine, they said. Witnesses said several people were killed in a subsequent 40-minute shootout, but the military command's press service did not immediately confirm the fighting or release any casualty figures. Russian facilities in the breakaway republic came under attack five times overnight, including three attacks in the capital Grozny, military officials said Saturday. There were no casualties reported in the attacks, the press service said. Russian sappers have disarmed 13 mines in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, a record number of explosive devices to be found in one day, the press center for the combined federal forces said. In Grozny, a Chechen woman was wounded when a small bomb went off Saturday at a city crossroads, the press center said. Another explosive device was found in a tree in Grozny, and was disarmed by sappers, the center said. Russian artillery pounded suspected rebel positions outside Grozny Saturday and troops were on high alert as some 200 rebels gathered south and southeast of Khankala. Russian troops occupy most of the republic, but have been unable to wipe out insurgents in Chechnya's southern mountains or prevent them from infiltrating Russian-held cities, including Grozny, where they plant mines and launch hit-and-run attacks. The Russians claim to have dispersed the rebels into small groups, but the militants have proved their continued ability to inflict losses on the military with truck bombings, roadside ambushes and nightly automatic weapons and sniper attacks. As they have throughout the 11-month war, Russian forces were avoiding close combat with the lightly armed but determined fighters, officials said, and were relying instead on heavy doses of artillery and rocket fire from a safe distance. Moscow sent its troops into Chechnya in September following militant raids in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan, and following the death of some 300 people in apartment bombings the government blames on Chechen terrorists. In neighboring Ingushetia, there was an attempt on the life of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, the press center said. It said a bomb exploded near Barayev, but he escaped uninjured. There were no further details. Three Russian youths who were killed by Chechen rebels on Thursday were buried in the Chechen village of Shelkovskaya on Saturday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The three, a 14-year-old girl and a 21-year-old couple, were shot and killed at a lake where they were swimming. Col. Igor Beskorovny, the military commandant for the Shelkovsky district told ITAR-TAss that the attack was premeditated and the attackers were waiting for their victims. He said seven suspects in the shooting have been arrested. Russian officials said in Moscow this week that 2,537 servicemen had been killed and 8,050 wounded since the first fighting began in Dagestan on Aug. 2. The Soldiers' Mothers' Committee, which works with the families of dead and missing soldiers, has said the military is vastly understating its losses. |