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Violence Claims Both Chechen and Russian Lives
MOSCOW, Aug 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - After violence left 30 Chechen activists and six Russian soldiers dead, Russian forces reported later Tuesday that they had wounded a top Chechen leader and killed six of his bodyguards, news agencies said.
The ITAR-TASS news agency reported that Shamil Basayev, whom Moscow holds responsible for a number of attacks on Russian soldiers, was injured and his bodyguards killed in combat with federal troops near his hometown of Vedeno, in southeastern Chechnya, said Alexei Kuznetsov, Russian General Staff Deputy Head.
Basayev, 36, had a foot amputated in February 2000 due to injuries sustained in a mine explosion.
Russian television and news agencies reported Tuesday that a series of bloody clashes in Chechnya left at least 36 people dead in 24 hours, six of them Russian soldiers.
Three Russian soldiers were killed Tuesday when their unit came under attack after falling into an ambush east of the capital Grozny, a journalist from state ORT television traveling with the unit said.
Around 20 Chechen fighters were thought to have been shot dead in an ensuing firefight with federal troops, around 20 of whom were injured, about six miles east of Grozny.
Another Russian soldier was killed and two others were wounded late Monday when a mine exploded in the village of Alkhan-Yurt on the southwestern outskirts of Grozny, the AVN military news agency said, quoting federal sources.
Chechen fighters shot dead another soldier who was guarding an oil pipeline in the town of Goradosk, 25 miles northwest of Grozny, pro-Russian police said.
Nine Chechens were killed in a "mopping-up" operation in the village of Alleroy, in southeastern Chechnya, Interfax news agency said, quoting military sources. A sixth Russian soldier died in the operation, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Chechnya pro-Russian prosecutor Vsevolod Chernov as saying. Nine Russian troops were also injured.
Another six Chechen activists were killed in a Russian helicopter raid in the southeastern region of Shali, a Russian official told AVN.
Interior Ministry troops said they shot dead a "rebel" in the village of Staraya Sunzha, near Grozny, according to ITAR-TASS.
Following a 1994-96 war that saw Chechnya win de facto independence, Russian troops returned to the republic on October 1, 1999, in a self-declared "anti-terrorist operation" that has since degenerated into a protracted guerrilla war.
Since the beginning of Russian military operations in the breakaway republic 22 months ago, federal forces have regularly announced they have killed or wounded the "main rebel leaders", only for most of them to later emerge unscathed.
Russia's army has come under fierce criticism from human rights groups for suspected atrocities committed against Chechen civilians during so-called "mopping-up" operations, in which soldiers filter through the civilian populations in Chechen villages searching for "rebels".
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