Posted on 09/17/2001 7:48:34 AM PDT by oxi-nato
Chechen rebels say they have launched a large-scale offensive across the breakaway republic of Chechnya, seizing buildings and shooting down a helicopter. A spokesman for rebel Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov told the French AFP news agency that the rebels had gained total control of Gudermes, the republic's second biggest city, and of Nozhai-Yurt, a town in the south-east.
Russian officials initially denied that a major attack was in progress, but have now said the situation in Gudermes is complicated and it is not yet clear whether the city has been recaptured. At least 10 Russian soldiers, including two generals, are thought to have been killed in the attack on the helicopter near the Chechen capital Grozny. 'Well-equipped'
"There has been a surge in activity, but on just what scale we are still checking," an official in the office of Kremlin Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrazhembsky said. Russian officials did confirm that at least three pro-Russian policemen died in the fighting around Gudermes. Colonel General Valery Baranov said federal troops killed at least 15 rebels in fighting in Gudermes.
As well as shooting down the helicopter, spokesman Movladi Udugov said rebels had seized a Russian military headquarters in Gudermes and launched a suicide car-bomb attack on a checkpoint in the town of Argun. Up to 400 men are reported to have taken part in the offensive on Gudermes.
The Interfax news agency quoted unidentified sources in the town's police as saying the separatists were firing at numerous offices, federal units and police positions. The rebels were said to be very well equipped and organised. "The rebels display good knowledge of the area and the location of police units. This possibly means that some of them are local residents," RIA said. Trenches The agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying servicemen were digging trenches on the outskirts of the city, some 30 km (20 miles) east of Grozny.
Russian troops are reported to have gone on high alert in Grozny, while a state of emergency has been declared in Gudermes. Russian troops seized Gudermes from separatists soon after Moscow began its second war in the breakaway Chechen republic in 1999. Until earlier this year, it was the seat of the pro-Moscow administration in Chechnya.
Besides this, as I've always said, arm the cossaks and give them the whole of the province....disperse the remaining Chechins to the four corners of Russia.
By the way, lets keep this proportional: 400 men is not a massive offensive. See what happened in the end to the Vietcong's 60,000 man Tet Offensive?
also the kla/nla are terrorists as even said so by nato itself and yet the u.s. and nato fight on behalf of islamic terrorists in the balkans!!!
they are terrorists like the kla in kosovo!!!
It's been estimated that radical Islamic groups, some of which have declared a jihad or holy war against Russia, may have brought the Chechen rebels tens of millions of dollars.Emphasis mine.London-based Sheikh Omar Bakri-Mohammed says his supporters in Britain are not alone in having sent money and hundreds of volunteers to Chechnya.
The recruits join the military wing of the International Islamic Front, headed by the notorious Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, and are trained in Pakistan - where the leading Chechen warlord, Shamil Basayev, himself underwent training about 10 years ago.
If you're going to paraphrase General Phil Sheridan's famous line on the Indians, do so accurately:
The only good [Islamic fundmentalists] I ever saw were dead.
From a speech given at Ft. Union in 1869.
It depends on your perspective.
Chechens, are fighting for independence in their homeland of Chechnya. Since they are hopelessly outmanned and outgunned by the Russian Military, they are accepting aid from wherever and whomever they can get it.
Then a deal could have been worked out on the oil and natural gas ( the real reason for the invasion ) that would have profited both sides handsomely! They could have been business partners,but by sending in the Army,Russia has once again become bogged down in a guerilla war,and because the Chechens are Muslim,it has become a Jihad,with volunteers coming in from all over!
Uh, I think Chechnya is part of Russia .. at least by my last look at the map. Do you think the USA will let California "check out" if we hire a few terrorists? Didn't think so ...
Nothing should be accomplished via terrorism.
Cordially,
We should also help Russia to eradicate this nest of vermin.
They are particularly proud of the way they treat captive Russian soldiers, and now that they can videotape the evidence and leave it behind.... I saw on Russian TV a videotape of the bastards knifing several Russian POWs. For the coup de gras, the last of the men was forced to look at the camera while his murderer slit his throat from ear to ear. Then, the camera panned down on him to show him bleeding-out on the ground. Not on bit was edited-out.
As the TV commentator said in clear Russian; "No normal person wants to see these images, but all people must understand the seriousness of the problem we are up against...". It was just after 6 P.M., and I had to put down the sandwich I was eating in my hotel room... Then, they went on to show another Russian prisoner being savagely beaten, and begging for his life, and then the maps captured from the Islamic Fundamentalists of their plan for conquering all the Volga Region, lower Azov area, the Crimea, Ukraine, and Southern Europe - then the rest of the world. Crazy? Yes. Driven? Yes. Motivated? Yes. Will the enemy just stop? No. Not without a hell of a fight.
They also showed the very recently shot-down Mi-24 helicopter and a captured US-made Stinger missle launcher.
The message I get is that we could have no better friend in this fight than Russia, and make no greater mistake than to fail in cooperating with Russia in this fight. My friends in Russia love America for our help in changing their political landscape, as well as for our father's help 55 years ago. They are praying for us and crying real tears "with" us.
We are in the same boat.
Who in the USA really gives a damn about controlling Caspian oil in cooperation with the Chechen terrorists? Nobody I know.
In our house in Texas we are now boiling our drinking water. All of it. My rifle is loaded and in my car, along with a few other goodies - just in case. I am committed to helping if I can, and to the idea that ALL Americans from whatever part of the globe are to be respected and protected. To think otherwise would be to destroy our core beliefs and give a victory to the enemies. I am also ready to fight, if called. This will be no walk in the park.BR>
They are particularly proud of the way they treat captive Russian soldiers, and now that they can videotape the evidence and leave it behind.... I saw on Russian TV a videotape of the bastards knifing several Russian POWs. For the coup de gras, the last of the men was forced to look at the camera while his murderer slit his throat from ear to ear. Then, the camera panned down on him to show him bleeding-out on the ground. Not on bit was edited-out.
As the TV commentator said in clear Russian; "No normal person wants to see these images, but all people must understand the seriousness of the problem we are up against...". It was just after 6 P.M., and I had to put down the sandwich I was eating in my hotel room... Then, they went on to show another Russian prisoner being savagely beaten, and begging for his life, and then the maps captured from the Islamic Fundamentalists of their plan for conquering all the Volga Region, lower Azov area, the Crimea, Ukraine, and Southern Europe - then the rest of the world. Crazy? Yes. Driven? Yes. Motivated? Yes. Will the enemy just stop? No. Not without a hell of a fight.
They also showed the very recently shot-down Mi-24 helicopter and a captured US-made Stinger missle launcher.
The message I get is that we could have no better friend in this fight than Russia, and make no greater mistake than to fail in cooperating with Russia in this fight. My friends in Russia love America for our help in changing their political landscape, as well as for our father's help 55 years ago. They are praying for us and crying real tears "with" us.
We are in the same boat.
Who in the USA really gives a damn about controlling Caspian oil in cooperation with the Chechen terrorists? Nobody I know.
In our house in Texas we are now boiling our drinking water. All of it. My rifle is loaded and in my car, along with a few other goodies - just in case. I am committed to helping if I can, and to the idea that ALL Americans from whatever part of the globe are to be respected and protected. To think otherwise would be to destroy our core beliefs and give a victory to the enemies. I am also ready to fight, if called. This will be no walk in the park.
patent +AMDG
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