Chechnya: participants of skirmish in Gudermes District are searched

So far, power agencies could not get on the trail of the militants, who on February 15 twice started skirmishes with Chechen law enforcers in the Gudermes District. In the course of these combat clashes, an officer of the special-purpose MIA regiment was killed, and two more servicemen were wounded. It is supposed that some of searched militants were also wounded.

"Despite all the measures, so far, we are not on trail of bandits, although there are grounds to believe that some of them were killed or wounded," a source from local power agencies said in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 15, according to official sources, in a large forest near Melch-Khi village, Gudermes District, a special militia unit, which made a search, came across a militants' camp consisting of four tents. At approach to the base, militiamen were shelled by a group of militants up to ten persons strong; and a law enforcer was wounded.

In the evening of the same day, this underground group was detected between settlements Oiskhar and Ilskhan-Yurt. As a result of a new skirmish, an officer the special-purpose MIA regiment of Chechnya was lost, and one militiaman was wounded. The militants again managed to break away from the chasers and escape.

In the meantime, some websites of Chechen separatists wrote that this incident could have to do with some "shootout" among local law enforcers, controlled by President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. They assert that a large quarrel burst out between one of Kadyrov's commanders and an officer of the special-purpose regiment, which ended in a skirmish. Allegedly, the incident took place near Ilskhan-Yurt village, where two participants of the conflict lived.

Law enforcement bodies of Chechnya called this interpretation of the events in the Gudermes District to be "false bandits' propaganda," which "has nothing to do with reality."