Major Russian Losses In Chechnya
Chechen rebels defied tighter Russian security in the breakaway republic, killing 19 soldiers in hit-and-run attacks, a Chechen government official said Monday.
Sixteen of the soldiers were killed in rebel attacks during the previous night on federal checkpoints and installations, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Three more were killed and four were wounded on Sunday when rebels blew up an armored personnel carrier near the village of Serzhen-Yurt, in the mountainous Vedeno region in the south.
Chechen independence fighters have stepped up attacks in recent days, and Russian forces have responded with sharper restrictions on civilians' movements.
Soldiers at a checkpoint on the border between the neighboring regions of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, just outside Chechnya, expressed frustration about what they saw as the futility of the fighting. They wore dirty combat fatigues and some smelled of alcohol.
"There are two ways to finish this war — either withdraw from Chechnya or burn all of Chechnya down, leaving not one Chechen alive," said Sgt. Alexei Artukh, 20. "Otherwise they will start a new war against Russia."
"I have been at war for seven months now," said Sgt. Dmitry Vlasenkov, also 20. "I am sick and tired of war, Chechnya, and imbecile commanders."
In the hills "there are as many rebels as there are cockroaches in our barracks," said soldier Anatoly Chebotaryov. When soldiers were sent up there, he said, "We viewed them as condemned to death."
A Chechen spokesman denied on Monday that Russian troops had killed Chechen rebel field commander Shirvani Basayev, the brother of one of the main guerrilla leaders in the breakaway province.
Earlier Monday the office of the Kremlin's Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said Basayev, brother of top field commander Shamil Basayev and a major figure in his own right, had been "annihilated" in a special operation and had already been buried.
An aide to Yastrzhembsky declined to give any further details on the operation. A spokeswoman for Russia's FSB security police also said that Shirvani Basayev had been killed.
Russia has said several times in the past that top rebel commanders, including both Basayev brothers, have been killed or injured. These reports have rarely proven true, although Shamil Basayev did lose a foot this year in a minefield.
Shamil Basayev has been Russia's most wanted man since leading a hostage-taking raid on the southern Russian town of Budennovsk in 1995. He emerged last year at the helm of Chechen guerrilla groups that invaded other nearby Russian regions.
His brother Shirvani is also a substantial figure in the pro-independence rebel movement and took part in peace talks with Russia in 1996-1997.
Russian troops on Monday sealed off the eastern part of the capital Grozny, including the city's university, teachers' college and a high school, and conducted house-to-ouse searches for people accused of collaborating with the rebels.
Worried parents, professors and students gathered outside the security cordons, waiting for news of relatives and friends trapped inside the 4.6 square mile area. Residents and human rights advocates have accused Russian forces of using excessive force and detaining people indiscriminately in such sweeps.
Russian forces re-entered Chechnya last year in an attempt to restore control over the region, which has a history of resistance to Russian rule going back to the czarist era.