"We use the wholly Israeli method when we know the exact composition of a cell"

MOSCOW, January 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Russian army has switched tactics in combating Chechen fighters, and is now using an "Israeli method" to eliminate them, an Australian newspaper quoted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov saying Tuesday, January 7.

"The tactics of the federal forces have changed. It is now a precise operation during which we kill those who ought to be killed," Ivanov said, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

"We use the wholly Israeli method when we know the exact composition of a cell, and we do not let go until the entire cell has been eliminated."

"If there is a cell of 10 people and we have eliminated nine out of the 10, we will pursue the 10th until his elimination," the minister said, reported the Herald.

Referring to the current situation in the southern republic, Ivanov added: "Obviously, it is we who control the situation but it cannot be said that there will be no further attacks in the future."

The minister went on to say that there will be no massive withdrawal of Russian troops from the war-torn republic in 2003.

Russia currently has 80,000 troops in its fiercely independent North Caucasus republic. Federal troops poured back into Chechnya in October 1999 to put down resistance forces that had enjoyed de facto independence since an earlier 1994-96 war.

Earlier in November, Russia said it dropped plans to withdraw some of its troops from Chechnya, instead are stepping up their operations after intelligence suggested that Chechen fighters were planning attacks on Russian targets along the lines of October's theatre attack in Moscow.

"I have made a decision to interrupt plans to reduce the number of troops in Chechnya.

"Starting today, our military has begun a broad, tough but well-conceived special military operation across the whole of Chechnya," Ivanov said at the time.

Russian forces have been accused by human rights groups of carrying out arbitrary arrests and summary executions as troops try to stamp out resistance in Chechnya, said Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In another development, Ivanov hit out, on Monday, January 7, at Russian commanders' incompetence and indifference for frequent soldier desertions plaguing Russia's ailing army, the Interfax news agency reported, said AFP.

"Mass desertions are usually caused by the commanders' inability to work with their subordinates, their lack of interest in what happens among soldiers, and willful abandonment of direct duties they are paid to fulfill," Ivanov said.

Russian military prosecutors on Sunday opened a criminal case for desertion after 24 soldiers abandoned their posts in the Saint Petersburg region, saying they had been brutalized by officers, AFP reported.

Desertions are frequent in the 1.1 million-strong Russian armed forces, where conditions are harsh and recruits serving two years -- three in the navy -- are often subjected to bullying and violence.