Posted on 12/15/2003 8:03:12 PM PST by Fusion
Gunmen from breakaway Chechnya raided a remote mountain village in neighboring Dagestan on Monday, killing at least nine border guards and escaping with four hostages, officials said.
At least 25 gunmen ambushed an outpost near the border between war-ravaged Chechnya and Dagestan and Russia's frontier with Georgia.
The gunmen opened fire at the checkpoint from a car and then quickly turned back, said Anzhela Martirosova, spokeswoman for the Dagestani branch of Russia's Interior Ministry. When the border guards rushed to pursue the car, militants fired from the roadside, killing an officer and eight troops, Martirosova said.
Initial reports said 10 people were wounded but officials later said that was not true.
The gunmen then entered the village of Shauri and fired shots in the air to frighten residents. They took four hostages, all men, and headed toward the border with Georgia about six miles to the south, Martirosova said.
Dagestani police tried to chase the gunmen but lost track of them in rugged terrain, Martirosova said. The Russian military dispatched combat helicopters, but bad weather hampered the search and it was called off as darkness fell.
Suicide bombings and other attacks have killed more than 275 people in and around Chechnya and in Moscow in the past year. The Kremlin has blamed most on Chechen rebels.
Ramazan Mamedov, a representative of the Dagestani regional government in Moscow, said Monday's raid was apparently meant as another show of rebel strength. "It was intended to scare the leadership of our republic and the population," Mamedov told Echo of Moscow radio.
The attack prompted fears of a repeat of previous incursions by Chechen rebels into Dagestan, including a January 1996 hostage-taking raid on the town of Kizlyar that killed about 78 people and helped the rebels win de-facto independence later that year.
Russian troops rolled back into Chechnya in September 1999 after Chechen rebels attacked villages in western Dagestan and after the Kremlin blamed militants for apartment bombings that killed some 300 people in Moscow and other Russian cities.
Russian troops in Chechnya continue to suffer daily losses in rebel attacks and land-mine explosions. At least 10 federal soldiers were killed and another 24 wounded in clashes with the rebels since Sunday, an official with the Kremlin-backed civilian administration for Chechnya said Monday on condition of anonymity.
Only the greatest fighter on the face of the earth -- Shamil Basayev -- stands between the madman Putin and his goal of a Stalin-like genocide in the Caucuses. Only Shamil Basayev with the capacity to destroy the Russian Federation and in doing so save all mankind in the Third World War.
Moscow must immediately withdraw north of the Terek River or be destroyed. He is taking the long way to get there, but when Shamil Basayev arrives in Moscow he will be carrying only a single suitcase and a holy vow...
The ex-KGB thug Putin merely another Russian hoodlum in a cheap suit and bad haircut. He has been checkmated by Basayev...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/12/16/001.html:
The commander of the outpost, Captain Radim Khalikov, and eight border guards set out for Shaury, only to be ambushed by the rebels enroute, the border guard service's North Caucasus department said in a brief statement.
The rebels used knives to finish off the wounded and beheaded Khalikov. They then took four villagers hostage and left Shaury in three vehicles, NTV television reported.
For "greatest" fighter, he do not more then run and hide for 3 years, after buttocks handed to him by Russia in Grozny. Maybe you should go and tell him how proper to fight war....you can even lead and show.
A holy cow...oh gads...the 20,000 Hindus in Moscow now terrified...Sheva incarnate...so tell me, how long it take to hop on one leg to Moscow?
They scaled down their operations - only four captives?
Chechen rebels surrounded in DagestanA group of Chechen rebels that attacked the Shauri settlement in Dagestan on Monday, has been surrounded in the Galatli settlement of Dagestan’s Tsuntin district.
According to several hostages who were released, there are about 40 rebels in the group, local administration officials told RBC. The Galatli settlement is located 2,500 meters above sea level. Russian troops killed seven members of the rebel group Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the bodies of nine border guards who were killed by the militants on Monday, have been transported to a local border guard office, Lieutenant-General Nikolay Lesinsky, the head of the North Caucasian Border Guard Department, told RBC. They were all identified.
A group of 20-50 Chechen rebels stormed into the Shauri settlement in the southern region of Dagestan on Monday. They occupied a local hospital and took several hostages. Russian border guards who were pursuing the rebels were ambushed and killed.
Having taken several hostages, the militants left the Shauri settlement and moved towards the Dagestan-Chechen border. They are holding 8-11 hostages.
A criminal case has been opened under the articles “terrorism” and “hostage taking”.
RBC, 16.12.2003, Stavropol 10:42:19. This morning units of the federal forces have killed 7 gunmen from a group of Chechen militants who attacked the Dagestani settlement Shauri yesterday. According to Nikolay Lesinsky, the head of the North Caucasus border department, bodies of 9 frontier guards who were killed in an ambush yesterday had been delivered to headquarters of their regiment. Lesinsky told RBC that operations on eliminating the group of gunmen continued this morning.
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