15:44, 26 September 2005

Events in Chechnya

Three rebels were killed in a combat in Grozny's Oktiabrskii district on Saturday. Chechnya's Internal Affairs Ministry claims that the three had been involved in committing major terrorist acts and murders in the republic.

Officers of law enforcement agencies stopped a VAZ-2107 Zhiguli car with three people in who tried to put up armed resistance and were destroyed in the skirmish, says the Ministry.

"One of them, Aslan Tsumariyev, was a so-called emir of Sernovodsk, Sunzhenskaia district. According to our information, he had taken part in the attack on Roshni-Chu, Urus-Martan district, in August this year," the source said. "The other two, Ruslan Zaitiyev and Viskhan Zaitov, were involved in the murder of Ahmed Zavgayev, head of administration in the Nadterechnaia district, in September 2002, and in the terrorist act in Znamenskoye in July this year which resulted in 14 people killed."

One police officer was slightly wounded in the operation.

A combat between military men and a rebel unit occurred near Bugaroi, Itum-Kali district yesterday, which resulted in seven servicemen killed and around 10 wounded, a source with Chechnya's Internal Affairs Ministry told Caucasian Knot.

The day before a rebel shelter was found in the forest near Bugaroi. While it was examined a bomb was triggered wounding three officers of the local district division of internal affairs and two military men.

Besides, an officer of the Komi Republican Department of Internal Affairs was wounded while driving a truck which triggered a bomb in Chechnya's Grozny district on 25 September.

A UAZ vehicle driven by Captain Aslan Salgeriyev, chief of the territorial police station in Samashki, Achkhoi-Martan district, was blown up with a bomb planted in a pile of sand near his house this morning. As a result, Captain Salgeriyev sustained serious wounds and was admitted to the 9th city hospital in Grozny, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Reports (RCFS).

Unknown attackers shot automatic weapons at a Zhiguli car owned by Hussein Asmayev, 30, a riot police officer, in Samashki on 24 September. The policeman died of sustained wounds on the spot, according to the RCFS.

At least 24 people were killed and at least 33 were wounded in combats and terrorist acts in the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria) between 15 and 21 September. Such figures were derived by the Antiwar Club from an analysis of news published by RIA Novosti, Interfax, ITAR-TASS, and a number of other federal media.

The 24 killed people include nine servicemen of the Russian Defence Ministry and interior troops of the Internal Affairs Ministry; five police officer, both local and from other Russian regions; five officers of the Chechen Counter-terrorist Centre (the former Chechen presidential security service controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov - ed.); two members of illegal armed formations killed in Dagestan; and one officer of the Federal Security Service Department for Ingushetia.

The 33 wounded people include 19 police officers, local and from other Russian regions; 10 federal servicemen; three women accidentally wounded in a skirmish between policemen and rebels in Dagestan; and one officer of the Russian Federal Security Service wounded in Chechnya.