Posted on 02/02/2004 7:31:03 PM PST by Fusion
Rebel attacks and land mines killed at least 11 Russian servicemen and pro-Moscow Chechen police officers in Chechnya over a 24-hour period, an official in the region's Kremlin-backed administration said Monday.
Four of the Russian soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in rebel attacks on Russian outposts across Chechnya, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Three servicemen died in separate skirmishes with rebels in Chechnya's southern mountains, and two were killed Sunday when their fuel-laden truck hit a land mine and exploded in a giant fireball outside the village of Samashki, the official said.
On Monday, the bodies of two Chechen policemen with gunshot wounds were found on a street in the capital, Grozny, the official said.
Russian artillery, meanwhile, shelled suspected rebel hideouts in several parts of Chechnya, he said, adding that Russian forces also detained some 170 Chechen residents since Sunday.
In the eastern Gudermes region, federal authorities killed a suspected rebel warlord and detained several accomplices, Russian military spokesman Ilya Shabalkin told the Interfax news agency.
Russian troops left Chechnya after a disastrous 1994-1996 war against separatist rebels that killed tens of thousands of people and left the mostly Muslim region with de facto independence.
The Russian army rolled back into the region in September 1999 after Chechen rebels attacked a neighboring province, and after the Kremlin blamed militants for apartment-building bombings that killed some 300 people in Russian cities.
2. To give any territory or show weakness to Islamic is only to encourage further attack, this proven when Chechin invade Daghistan in 1999....no mercy, no weakness, no retreat from Islam, only war to bitter end...preferred theres. As Jew, you should appreciate that fact, look at Israel, every time idiot leadership back off it only invite increase of attack...so when dealing with devil spawn ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK.
Eastern Christians wonder about this too....
Thanks for the laugh today Fusion.
Groan...
Sorry, I'm not Russian - just a gardener.
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