Kavkaz News: Chechnya War Moves To Mountains
Transcript from… http://www.chechnya.xnet.is/... the website of the official news agency of the Chechen rebels.
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February 10th
Kavkaz-Tsentr reports:
The
intensive fighting near Day in the southern high mountains
continues. During the last 24 hours the Russians tried to
extend their earlier success of having occupied a tactical
height. These efforts were supported by fighter
helicopters.
Last night the Mujahideen managed to stop
further Russian advance. They outflanked the Russians by
moving behind their lines and attacked at dawn. Afterwards
the Chechens retreated to their former positions under cover
of mortar fire.
The Chechen command have made it known
that the Russians lost more than 70 men and 4 pieces of
armour were knocked out. One Mujahideen died and 4 were
wounded.
The villages in the southern and southwestern
districts of Chechnya were bombed and shelled most heavily
yesterday. The district capital Shatoy has been the target
of an unprecedented bombing-raid: 23 "Scud" and SS 21
rockets were launched and more than 150 bombs of different
sizes were dropped on Shatoy. The Russians used napalm,
phosphorous bombs, and vacuum bombs. The whole night Shatoy
was shelled with "Uragan" and "Smerch" rocket launchers.
Due to these attacks about 30 civilians died in Shatoy.
According to the Chechen command various places in the
following districts of Chechnya are being attacked with
rockets and aircraft: Vedeno, Shatoy, Itum-Kale, Sharoy,
Cheberloyevsky, Urus-Martan, Achkhoy-Martan. This morning
the villages of Duba-Yurt, Varandy, Zonakh, Borzoy,
Khattuni, Elistanzhi, Shaami-Yurt, Khidi-Khutor,
Yalkhoy-Mokhk, and others were bombed.
Yesterday evening bitter fighting took place near Khidi-Khutor in the Nozhay-Yurt district of Chechnya. The Chechens attacked advance units of the aggressors and managed to force them back to their former positions in fierce combat actions in the woodlands of this region. About 40 Russians were killed and one BMP was destroyed. The Mujahideen suffered no casualties, but civilians died and were wounded in the massive artillery attack on the village of Khidi-Khutor.
Citizens of Dzhokhar who managed to escape
from the town during the last few days have reported
pillaging and killing of civilians by the Russian troops.
Victims of these crimes are not only Chechens but also
Russian inhabitants of the town. A women from the suburb of
Michurina, Syeda Saralapova, says she saw Russian soldiers
shoot more than 20 people at once--the majority of the
victims were women and children. Two of the female victims
were her neighbours from Michurina: Zoya Sultanova and
Malika Serbiyeva.
High officers are said to have taken
part in the plundering in Dzhokhar. Eye-witnesses are shot
if the Russians see them. According to the Chechen command,
since the withdrawal of the Mujahideen from the Chechen
capital at least 600 civilians have been shot by the
Russians.
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February 9th, 2000
Kavkaz-Tsentr reports:
The Chechen vice-president Vakha Arsanov is denying all rumours regarding his death. He has invited the Russian aggressors not to hurry: "The bullet on which my name is written won't miss me, but other bullets won't miss the Kremlin's cannibals. Every man has his own apportioned lifetime. When we die, we go to paradise, you go to hell."
Stubborn fighting has persisted for a month near
the mountain village of Day. As reported earlier, the
Russians carried out an airborne operation there and are
trying to break through in the direction of
Itum-Kale.
According to the Chechen command, this morning
the Russians managed to capture one of the tactical heights
near Day that had not been manned by the Mujahideen. Now
bitter fighting is taking place there. The Russians are
using helicopters and bomber-planes. The Chechens have
occupied the opposite height.
After bitter face-to-face fighting during the last three days the combat actions for the mouth of the Argun Valley are of a stationary nature again. But according to the Chechen command's estimation this is only a temporary development. According to the commander of the Mujahideen in this combat area, Daud Akhmedov, the Chechen reconnaissance has observed a massive concentration of Russian troops near the village Alkhazurovo. A resumption of the Russian assault is expected. Meanwhile Russian aviation and artillery are attacking Chechen villages.
Last night the Chechen Mujahideen carried out an operation against the aggressors near Tsa-Vedeno. A few days ago advance units of the Russians, so-called marine infantry, had moved towards Tsa-Vedeno in order to occupy favourable positions. Having carried out a masked operation the Mujahideen now attacked unexpectedly. Until dawn the main forces of the Russians gang have been forced to retreat. Several Russian sub-units are still hiding in the forests of this region - having lost their command, they are trying to get back to their main forces on their own.
During the whole period of fighting
for the Chechen capital about 30 doctors and nurses worked
in Dzhokhar and rendered medical aid to the Mujahideen.
Among them was the Health Minister of the ChRI, Umar
Khambiyev, who himself is an excellent surgeon.
Some of
these physicians during the last days managed to escape from
the town alive. According to them during the whole Russian
assault on Dzhokhar and the bombardment of the town,
hospitals have been one of the favourite targets of the
Russian bombers. The Chechen command makes known that the
majority of these doctors, among them Umar Khambiyev, have
been arrested by the Russians were brought to a
concentration camp in the north of Chechnya.
Russian media
reports about a bomb explosion in Khabarovsk (Russian Far
East) that destroyed five blocks of flats. Kavkaz-Tsentr's
correspondent asked Abu Movsayev (chief of the Special
Administration of Chechnya's State-committee of Defence) for
a comment. Movsayev explained these incidents as the common
"pre-election blasts" organized by Putin's FSB. Putin lately
warned the Russian population of the possibility of further
terrorist acts in the Russian federation - and he knew what
he was saying. Movsayev reminded of the events in Ryazan,
where local policemen arrested FSB-member who were just
trying to deposit explosives in the cellar of a block of
flats.
Movsayev explains the fact that these incidents
usually take place far form the country's centre with the
desire of the Kremlin's leadership not to disquiet to much
the politically active part of the Russian population, i.e.
the inhabitants of Moscow.
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February 8th, 2000
Kavkaz-Tsentr reports:
The bitter fights near
Duba-Yurt at the mouth of Argun Valley continue. According
to the Chechen command a tactical height there changed hands
twice during the last 24 hours.
After a mighty artillery
attack and bomb-raids the Russians managed to force the
Mujahideen out of their positions on this height and to
occupy it for 6 hours. The Chechens re-grouped their units,
counter-attacked and regained control of the height. Two
Chechen fighters died, and 7 were wounded. According to the
Chechen command the Russians lost about 45 so-called "elite"
soldiers. Three mortars, 4 machine guns, one
state-of-the-art Russian 12.7 calibre sniper gun and a great
amount of equipment has been captured. One tank and 2 BMPs
have been knocked out.
The Chechen vice-president Vakha
Arsanov has visited Shamil Basayev. Arsanov praised the
distinguished performance of the Chechen armed forces during
the withdrawal from Dzhokhar. In the name of the Chechen
government, he paid his tribute to the discipline, fighting
spirit and coordination of the Mujahideen which will qualify
them for further tasks in the fight against the aggressors.
Having met Basayev, Arsanov said that Basayev's wounds
are not cause for concern. According to him the Chechen
surgeons performed an excellent operation.
It is said
that since the beginning of the fights in 1992 Shamil
Basayev has been wounded 14 times. This last wounding was
the most serious one.
The aggressors continue to bombard the Chechen villages they proclaimed "liberated from Chechen fighters" a few days ago. They are bombing and shelling the villages of Alkhan-Kala, Khambi-Irzi, Shaami-Yurt, Kotar-Yurt, Gekhi-Chu and others. These villages were passed through by the Chechen fighters during their withdrawal from Dzhokhar last week. The Chechen rear-guard has destroyed almost every Russian sentry and garrison in these villages. Not having been able to hinder them from doing so, the Russians take it out on the civilian population. Most heavily bombed was the village of Kotar-Yurt: Half of the houses there have been destroyed, and dozens of civilians were killed. Due to the bombing and shelling the people aren't able to bury their slain.
The abductions in
Chechnya, among them of journalists, until now have been
used by the Kremlin as a means of propaganda to justify the
extinction of the Chechen people.
The story of the
journalist Babitsky now sheds light upon the question who is
the real organizer of these abductions in Chechnya.
The
Chechen leadership has always blamed the Kremlin and its
special services to be responsible for the kidnapping and
claimed that these events were part of a great campaign to
discredit the Chechen state. According to the Chechen
government the kidnapping gangs act under direct control of
Russian special services. But until now the Chechen side was
unable to furnish proof of this.
Now the kidnapping and
so-called exchange of Babitsky is a vivid example for the
activities of Russian special services.
The Chechen
command considers it possible that Babitsky has been handed
over to a gang under the control of Russian services that
now (if Babitsky is still living) might try to squeeze money
for him. If this is true, in a short time we may perceive
the Kremlin's classical propaganda story: that Babitsky has
been captured by another group of Chechen
blackmailers.
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