Explosion in Russia kills 4 soldiers

AZ Central ^ | Nov. 14, 2003 | Associated Press

[yonif]

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - An explosion apparently caused by a remote-controlled bomb ripped through a house in southern Russia on Friday, killing four Interior Ministry soldiers and wounding at least eight, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The blast occurred after the troops had entered the house for a security check, said Lt. Sergei Kozhemyaka, a ministry officer.

[DEPUTYMAYTAG]

What is a sapper???

[yonif]

Someone who disarms explosives/bombs - a member of the bombsquad

[RussianConservative]

Russian ping list.

[archy]

a deputy prosecutor was wounded when a bomb detonated under his car seat.

Chechnyan terrorists? Or mafiya?

[archy]

What is a sapper???

Someone who disarms explosives/bombs - a member of the bombsquad

What US calls a Combat Engineer. Someone who plants landmines or digs them up.

For Russians, also includes the dog-team handlers who find mines and boobytraps before they go; K9 teams, or Sobokniks.

[klpt]

http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/albums/russian_chechnyan_conflict/chech14.jpg">

[Tunehead54]

Here ya go - a little help from a FRiend!

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[Sender]

One of today's messages on the Daleel Al Mojahid board is a plea for food, money, weapons and supplies for the poor Chechens so they can kill more kuffar.

[struwwelpeter]

Great article.

Looks like the "sobakniki" prefer nemetskie ovcharki (German Shepherds). Our Army and Air Force seems to favor Belgian Malanois, but I noticed while touring an Austrian installation that they preferred Rottweilers.

What's your fav?

[archy]

What's your fav?

Depends on the job and circumstances. The German Shepherd Dog/GSD or nemetskie ovcharki/Deutscher Schaferhund [I've also heard 'em called soboka Germanski] is a fine all-around dog, and well-suited to conditions from tropic to arctic.

Note that avalanche rescue teams and lifeguard stations are often staffed with the Newfoundland, and it's hard to find a more loving sweethearted moose of a dog, that can turn into a snarling bear if it's human-family people or kids are threatened or in jeapordy. I once saw a water rescue Newfie clear a path of Holiday in tables and chairs to get to a little girl in difficulty in a hotel pool; it loked like a black, furry bulldozer had cut a swath through the dining area to get to her. Good dog.

I've worked with K9 teams since 1977, in a locale where two of the three state boundaries were rivers, so accordingly, we had more than our share of drownings and suicide and accident victim recoveries in the water, as well as the usual lake and hoime pond accidents. The longhaired dogs looked like drowned rats after a day in and out of the water, and were beloved neither by those in uniform showered when the dogs shook excess water off, nor by the radio techs who noted problems in some of our radios from the same source.

From 1975 to 1981 I worked with a wonderful Weimaraner bitch who spoiled me for the traits of the breed: the nose of a bloodhound crossed with the speed and agility of a greyhound. When time was critical, greta could follow a track at 35 miles an hour carrying a radio collar whose signals we'd follow to her location. In the 7 years we weorked together, she earned 12 awards for lives saved, and easily twice that many where our services had been called upon too late.

I moved more into cadaver search after that, always a component of our work, preferring to let the newer and younger operators enjoy the satisfaction and spotlight that came with the live saves. That included a Doberman/GSD male named Sabian and a Dobe bitch named Igla. We worked the 1992 St Louis area Mississippi area flooding, among several other disasters that included earthquakes and four tornados, and the Western forest fire season of 1993. The Dobes are great in the water, and since my dogs were long-tailed and their ears weren't cropped, rather than shy away from the *killer dobermans* a lot of folks mistook them for coonhounds and the dogs just ate the attention up.

The longest track of an evader, over a hundred miles, is listed in the Guinnes Book as being held by a South African police Dobie from their training center at Bloemfontein. Aside from the Canadian Mounted Police training center at Regina, Saskatchewan, that was probably one of the top K9 training facilities in the world, though since moved, and now training GSD's as well.

The best dog for the job? Lots of jobs, lots of dogs, lots of opinions about things like that. But the GSD is a good, all-around choice, instantly recognizable as one of the best partners a man can have.