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| Caucasus |
| Basayev and Maskhadov behind Ishkhoi-Yurt attack |
| 2004-04-16 |
| Rebels detained in a recent operation in Chechnya said that the events in Ishkhoi-Yurt and some other areas had been planned since February "under direct orders from Chechen separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov," representative of the regional headquarters for the anti-terrorist campaign in the North Caucasus Col. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Thursday. Five police officers and a local resident died in a clash with a rebel group that raided Ishkhoi-Yurt in Chechnya's Gudermes district early on April 13. The detained rebels said that a unit of about 50 men had been formed "and instructed by the separatist leaders to carry out attacks and murders to trigger civilian panic and discontent with the federal forces." The unit had five UAZ cars and two Ural trucks, Shabalkin said. He said they murdered several civilians in Dubai-Yurt on March 27 and in Ishkhoi-Yurt on April 13. Three rebels have been killed and seven bases designed to accommodate 5 to 15 men have been destroyed in the Shatoi and Itum-Kale districts of Chechnya, Shabalkin said. He said no aviation or artillery was used in the operation. The main target of the operation in the mountains is "to destroy the infrastructure rebels could use to attempt to cross the border from Chechnya and commit serious crimes in Chechnya," Shabalkin said. He said nine radios, a receiver, explosives, cartridges, military uniforms and rations were found at one of the bases. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 This sounds fishy to me. There are two possibilities: 1. The state of affairs in the ranks of Chechen fighters is pretty shabby, desperate, pathetic, economically distressed, etc. You mean to tell me that these upper level Chechen commanders have been reduced to directing 50 men to attack a tiny village and burn like three trucks and shoot an old man? And they're to accomplish theses tasks with the overpowering arsenal of nine radios, a reciever, some explosives, cartridges, military uniforms and some rations? Seven bases designed to accomodate 5 to 15 men? You mean huts, right? Give me a frickin' break! 2. the Russians are stretching the truth a little to further demonize Shamil Basayev and Alsan Maskhadov. They're just making sure that their names are mentioned as bad guy bosses everytime so much as one bullet is fired in Chechenya at anything of interest to the Russians. These two are the Bin Ladens and Al-Zawahiris of Russian news. I'll let you all infer which one is more likely. These idiots don't seem like the same idiots that bring down troop carrying Russian helos with 100+Russians inside (including Generals & upper-level officers by the way) and take groups of hundreds hostage in the HEART OF MOSCOW and truck bomb massive buildings in RUBBLE. |
| Posted by: Kentucky Beef 2004-04-16 2:45:15 AM |