Posted on 01/04/2002 9:04:08 PM PST by Pericles
Saturday January 5, 3:07 AM
New Year sees escalation of fighting in Chechnya
The New Year has seen a sharp escalation of fighting in Chechnya as Russian forces killed eight separatists in southern Chechnya overnight and rebels stepped up their own operations.
The rebels were killed in the village of Novaya Zhizn near Kurchaloy, 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of Grozny, on the sixth day of an offensive launched last Sunday, according to federal officials quoted by the military news agency Interfax-AVN.
Around a dozen rebels were killed Friday in another operation at Agishty, also in the Kurchaloy region, RIA Novosti quoted Russian military officials as saying.
The Russian state prosecutor in Chechnya Vsevolod Chernov said the operation in the Kurchaloy region was "nearly completed," but there were no immediate signs of a respite in the fighting.
The ITAR-TASS news agency reported that a mopping-up operation began Friday in Argun, Chechnya's third-largest town located 15 kilometres east of Grozny, after it was cordoned off in order to ensure that no rebels fleeing the offensive near Kurchaloy could take refuge there.
Argun lies on the main road from Grozny to both Gudermes, where most of the republic's administration is accommodated, and to Kurchaloy and Vedeno further south.
Several tanks were stationed in the town square, though no shooting was audible, ITAR-TASS said.
Chernov said an Arab, Aboudar Fazif, had been one of several mercenaries identified among those killed during the overnight fighting.
Russian military officials admitted that Chechen separatists had stepped up their actions throughout the republic over the past few days.
In the southeastern Shali region alone, rebels had launched around 30 attacks, while incidents had been reported even in districts considered to be pacified, officials at the federal army general staff headquarters in Grozny said, without providing details.
They said the upsurge in activity could be due to the rebels having received significant financial support recently, and noted that new concentrations of rebel fighters had been noted in the Urus Martan and Achkoi Martan regions southwest of the capital.
Federal spokesmen have estimated the total Chechen losses during this week's offensive at more than 100 dead.
A spokesman for rebel president Aslan Maskhadov, Mayerbek Vachagayev, told AFP Friday the figure was false, saying the Kremlin spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, was seeking to mislead public opinion in Russia and in the West.
Both sides have reported inflicting heavy casualties during the fighting as federal forces surrounded Chechen separatist fighters in the hamlet of Tsotsyn-Yurt.
According to Russian officials, two federal soldiers have died during the offensive, with 11 wounded.
Figures issued by either side are impossible to verify independently.
Federal positions came under attack on several occasions Thursday and Friday.
A rebel died during an attack on a federal checkpoint, Interfax-AVN reported the Russian interior ministry as saying.
It said one Russian soldier was wounded in an attack on an armoured vehicle, also in Grozny.
Emergency ministry officials said a deputy Chechen minister, Ruslan Yunusov, died after being shot in the chest Friday, but the circumstances surrounding his death remained unclear.
Russian forces entered Chechnya on October 1, 1999 in what Moscow describes as an anti-terrorist operation.
Preliminary contact undertaken between the two sides in November, with representatives sent by Maskhadov and the Kremlin, failed to produce any further political advances.
al-Qaeda in an attempt to fight back has launched operations around the world in an effort to draw away the storm it is facing in Afghanistan. We have seen escalation in Kosovo and across the border in FYROM, the Phillipines, Pakistan, Somalia, Kurdish Iraq, and Palestine. In some cases al-Qaeda does this with money, in other cases with actual fighters, weapons and leaders like the now dead Arab, Aboudar Fazif, one of several mercenaries identified among those killed during the overnight fighting
Moscow has never been able to overcome a critical weakness in this fight -- the long supply lines that provide a logistical nightmare by rail. Combined with the brutal weather and aggressive insurgent lightning strikes, the Russian "army" always runs out of gas by February.
You will know Shamil Basayev is on his way to Moscow to open "Allah's Suitcase" and topple the ex-KGB thug when you begin to see the attacks on the rail convoys. These disruptions of the Russian logistical tail are the classic signature attacks of the greatest fighter on the face of this earth.
Pretty boy Putin just another cheap Moscow gangster looking to make a buck. No one is fooled by this brutal war he fights merely to prop up his corrupt government...
And yes, the Chechens have received significant new funding of late -- but it's not from al Qaeda...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
Then, where's it from? Do tell.
Fusion, Very serious prediction, how certain are you and your sources or is it speculation? To announce that a nuke is going to be detonated in Russia is quite a statement to make, not to mention that all eyes will be wondering about the credibility of this info if it does not come to pass. Only time will tell. You wouldn't have the grid coordinates for Shamil Basayev would you?
The bullshit of Fusion on the move, Freepers giggle.
Given an infinite amount of posts by Fusion, one of them could undoubtedly amount to something approaching the truth.
Ain't happened yet, but I have rather modest hopes which increase to the tune of 1/infinity with each successive post.
Reread the post, and then tell your man Hoplite that he should be referencing Dickens, not Shakespeare, in his comment...
*******
Wraith
Concerning "Allah's Suitcase" being opened in Moscow...
This is a conclusion reached on this end of what will likely occur in the near future -- drawn from analyzing the following three conditions...
First, is the man himself -- Shamil Basayev. He has vowed a holy oath before Allah (quoting certain technical Islamic tenets that in essence jeopardize his afterlife if he fails) that he will kill Putin unless Russia withdraws from Chechnya. Perhaps he decides to use a less dramatic method to remove the ex-KGB thug -- perhaps not...
Second is the knowledge that Shamil Basayev has a MAN-P nuclear device. As mentioned once before somewhere, these devices (three I believe) have reached al Qaeda from Chechnya (then on to Baku, and from there disappearing across the Caspian Sea).
If you want one of these devices from the Russian mafia you have to go through the Chechens -- I don't think this is any secret...
Finally, there is Mr D's report to some of your pals about his visit that way about a year ago. Apparently some of President Maskhadov's leadership discussed this scenario with him and requested him to kriegspiel a political and military simulation of a suitcase nuclear explosion in Moscow that decapitated the Russian government in conjunction with an insurgent seizure by coup de main of Grozny or Gudermes.
Am I predicting a nuclear explosion in Moscow? Hard to say... After analyzing what I know about the above three conditions, do I believe it will happen?
Absolutely...
Can I give you a grid coordinate for the greatest fighter on the face of this earth? Afraid not, and I'm happy not to know his location. But I imagine he's a lot farther North than Putin feels comfortable with...
The ex-KGB thug a dead man walking...
Dry is good and wind is better...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
Islamic entente operatives to open "Allah's Suitcase" in major Western metropolitan areas before the end of the year -- Millions to die in the Third World War.
Your words - choke on 'em.
And feel free to address this whenever you can get around to working up a likely story.
Or remember when he predicted that a truck bomb would level a college dormitory in the Carolinas?
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