Russia troop begin final assault on Chechnya

Russia troop begin final assault on Chechnya
REUTERS

KHANKALA, RUSSIA, FEBRUARY 9: Russian military officials today said they had started the last phase of their battle to control the breakaway region of Chechnya and one general confirmed two regiments would soon be withdrawn.

Russian troops have turned their attention to fighting rebels in Chechnya's southern mountains where thousands fled after Moscow seized the rebel region's razed capital Grozny. Russia launched its campaign in Chechnya four months ago.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted the military at Russia's headquarters in the region as saying they had ``started the concluding phase in the operation to defeat the bandit groups in the mountainous parts of Chechnya''.

``We know where the bandit groups are congregating. First and foremost they will be destroyed there,'' Tass quoted General Viktor Kazantsev, one of Russia's top commanders in the region, as saying in Khankala, just outside Grozny.

``The fate of the bandits has already been decided,'' he said, adding Russian forces controlledterritory in the south from Shatili, a village across the border in Georgia, to Itum Kale.

But the rebel internet web site kavkaz.org said fighting continued close to Itum Kale after Russian paratroops were dropped onto a commanding height there.

Fighters were also preparing for a storming by Russian troops at the mouth of the Argun gorge, one of two main routes into the mountains, it said.

It said the battles, which had raged for three days, died down while Russian planes bombed villages surrounding the gorge, which is littered with the hulks of tanks destroyed during Russia's defeat in the 1994-96 Chechen war.

Gen Gennady Troshev, a top commander, said late yesterday some troops would be withdrawn from Chechnya.

``In the coming days two regiments...will be taken out of Chechnya,'' he told NTV commercial television. It was not clear how many men would be involved.

Meanwhile, Russian troops continued an operation to kill or capture those rebels who remained in Grozny, which was seized over theweekend and has been reduced to rubble after weeks of fighting.

The official Russian death toll stands at more than 1,100 but conscripts' families say Russian losses are three times higher. Some Russian newspapers published an official list naming 279 servicemen killed in fighting last year in Dagestan, a region neighbouring Chechnya.

In Grozny, civilians have started to leave the cellars they sheltered in to be greeted by the sight of devastated buildings and Russian troops on the streets.

The rebels have vowed to retake Grozny as they did twice in lightning raids against the Russians during the 1994-96 Chechen war. That war ended when Russia decided to withdraw its forces from Chechnya after the rebels retook the city the second time.

Russia's military reported from an army base in Mozdok that rebels had shot at Russian posts overnight in Achkoi-Martan, southwest of Grozny, and in nearby Urus-Martan.

Yesterday, Russia's Chechnya spokesman told reporters Russia was installing a new civiladministration in Grozny.

``It is clear to everyone the turning point has come...The process of restoring civilian authorities has begun,'' Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.

``Clearly a long political process is needed to work out a new status - maybe there could be a special status for Chechnya within the Russian Federation,'' he said. ``But we are leaping far into the future now.''