Rebels announce pullout from Chechens capital

Rebels announce pullout from Chechens capital
REUTERS

MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 1: The main spokesman for Chechnya's separatist government said on Tuesday all rebels had left the region's capital Grozny but Russia said fighting was still raging in the ruined city.

``The withdrawal was carried out in an orderly fashion,'' Movladi Udugov said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. ``They have been completely withdrawn from the city.''

Russia's new spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said battle continued in Grozny but the tide was turning in Russia's favour after troops captured the strategic Minutka Squarea roundabout giving access to the centre of the city. ``If they had left Grozny, then we would have informed you by all means,'' he told a news conference, adding the rebels were continually trying to get out of the capital and all such attempts were being crushed by Russian troops.

A Chechen withdrawal would be a major development in the war but by no means the end of the four-month-old conflict. Chechens have a record of withdrawing andthen staging surprise attacks. Yastrzhembsky said the capture of Minutka Square on Monday was a symbolic victory for Russian troops.

``Minutka has been a symbol, a strategic crossroads from which many roads lead into Grozny,'' he said. ``According to the reports of the federal command and in my opinion there has been a breakthrough in Grozny,'' Interfax news agency quoted Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev as saying in Mozdok, Russia's main army headquarters just outside Chechnya.

The Russian military launched its advance against Chechnya last September and moved easily through the region's lowlands before encountering stiff resistance in Grozny.

At the weekend, the rebels quoted their leader Aslanmaskhadov as ordering his forces to hold out in Grozny at least until February 23, the day when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin deported Chechens en masse in 1944.