MOSCOW,
November 3 (IslamOnline & News agencies) - Nine people were killed
when Chechen fighters shot down a Russian helicopter near the capital of
the breakaway republic Sunday, November 3, according to a Russian
military commander.
The
MI-8 helicopter was struck by a ground-to-air missile fired from a
building near Grozny, said Boris Podoprigora, deputy commander of
Russian forces in Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.
News
of the attack came shortly after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
said he ordered a halt to a planned army withdrawal from the Chechen
republic in response to last month's Moscow hostage crisis in which 119
civilians died.
Just
last Tuesday, October 29, Chechen fighters downed a Russian helicopter
near Grozny, killing four people, three days after the dramatic end of
the hostage-taking by Chechen commandos in a Moscow theatre.
Chechen
fighters last August shot down a Russian MI-26 military helicopter near
the Russian headquarters in Chechnya. A total of 121 people died in the
crash.
The
Russian military has an estimated 80,000 troops in and around the North
Caucasus republic, where Moscow launched a self-declared
"anti-terrorism" operation against Chechen independence
seekers three years ago
