Posted on 10/15/2001 2:17:36 PM PDT by Pericles
Monday October 15 12:09 PM ET
Russian Troops Kill 20 Rebels
By YURI BAGROV, Associated Press Writer
NAZRAN, Russia (AP) - Russian troops killed 20 rebels and lost five men in scattered clashes with separatists in the breakaway province of Chechnya, officials said Monday.
Military officials also said attackers believed to be rebels fired on a civilian bus, killing six people near Argun, nine miles east of Grozny. However, they gave no further details and the shooting could not be confirmed with the rebels.
Also near Grozny, federal investigators were examining the bodies of 12 civilians found in a burial site who bore the signs of violent death.
The Russian commandant's office in Grozny said the 20 separatist fighters had been killed since Sunday as troops combed areas in southern and southeastern Chechnya, strongholds of the rebels.
Among those killed was Ali Demayev, a Chechen brigadier general described as a top aide to separatist president Aslan Maskhadov, who was shot inside his house in the area of Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city 19 miles east of Grozny.
Demayev, who served as Maskhadov's envoy to various field commanders, was killed in a ``carefully planned joint operation'' of Russia's Federal Security Service and defense and interior ministry troops, said the Russian commander in Chechnya, Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi.
Troops also clashed with separatist fighters who attempted to break into the village of Ushkaloi in southern Chechnya in several vehicles on Monday. Two cars were destroyed and four rebels captured, the commandant's office said.
Russian forces also used aircraft and artillery to pound rebel positions in Chechnya's south and southeast.
Two Russian soldiers were killed in Chechen shooting attacks since Saturday, and three more died in Grozny in separate incidents when a truck and an armored personnel carrier hit land mines, according to military officials in Gudermes.
Interior troops in Grozny opened fire on two Chechens suspected of trying to plant a land mine, killing them in a subsequent shootout, said the ITAR-TASS news agency.
Chechnya won de facto independence after a 1994-96 war with Moscow. Federal forces returned three years later after militants based in Chechnya raided a neighboring Russian region and after bombings blamed on the separatists killed more than 300 people in Russian cities.
A Dirty War
By Anna Politkovskaya
A Russian Journalist who travelled in Chechnya.
It takes a critical look at the war and both sides and the people in the middle.
The interviews with the soldiers are extremely interesting and relate to other things I have heard about not only the conscripts but the contract soldiers as well.
It also gives a lot of detail on who is making money out of this war on both sides.
It bears out my own theory and that of a few Russian experts I know that this war is a poisoned two bladed dagger aimed at Russia as well as at the North Caucasus.
Read it even if only to trash it.
Tony
madrussian I have probably been around the bloc more times than you have had hot dinners to take notice of a few one-liners, that sound great in the local bar after a few jars
She has great sympathy for the soldiers out there, and seems to know a lot more about the state of the Russian army than many on this site judging by past replies.
Also she name names and even gives out telephones numbers and addresses of those making money out of this conflict, and a few ring true
Read the book them come back and tell me what is correct and what is just disinformation.
Tony
Russians know about corruption, don't worry. Different people make different conclusions.
Which Russia is that the Soviet Union, the Slavic Nations, the Russian Empire before the revolution.
re : Russians know about corruption,
But you don’t you are in America a world away from what goes for the ordinary Russians today.
Tony
Tony
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