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At Least 32 Russian Soldiers Killed In Deadly Chechen Ambush
Consistent Tale Of Russian Abuse In Chechnya: U.N. Rights Chief
Iran Not Willing To Risk Ties With Russia Over Chechnya
Kuwaiti Islamic Movement Holds Rally In Support Of Chechnya
by Jon Boyle
MOSCOW, April 1 (AFP) – The Russian government finally admitted Saturday to at least 32 deaths in a Chechen ambush last Wednesday.
"In total there are 32 bodies," said Igor Kiselyov, spokesman for the Perm region Interior Ministry. "We have evacuated 19, and 13 remain" on the battlefield, he said. The bodies of at least nine of the soldiers left behind have been booby-trapped by the mujahideen, he said.
Five soldiers managed to escape the carnage and one wounded serviceman was rescued overnight, he said.
That leaves 11 men still missing in the wake of Wednesday's battle near the village of Zhani-Vedeno, which is located in the rugged mountains of southeastern Chechnya. The dead have been taken to the main district town Vedeno, the home base of Shamil Basayev, the Chechen field commander most wanted by Moscow.
On Friday, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said that four soldiers were known to have been killed with a further seven wounded servicemen rescued.
Chechen fighters attacked a column of 49 Interior Ministry troops on Wednesday, destroying the first and last vehicles with rocket-propelled grenades before pouring automatic gunfire into the remainder.
Military officials told the ITAR-TASS news agency that 300 fighters loyal to field commander Khattab, a Basayev ally, had laid the trap and kept Russian reinforcements at bay.
Earlier, General Viktor Medveditskov, head of Interior Ministry troops in Chechnya, refused to confirm the mounting casualty figure, saying his men were continuing the hunt for soldiers officially posted as “missing.”
"The search group worked until nightfall [Friday]. Yesterday evening we had information about seven dead," he said on private NTV television. "Since this morning search operations resumed. For the moment I do not have any precise details. We will have them once they return," he said.
Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's top spokesman on Chechnya who has taken the lead in presenting details of Moscow's crackdown in Chechnya, also declined to confirm the figures but promised fuller details later. "Right now, mopping up operations are going on. Bad weather is preventing us from being more active" and restricting air support, Yastrzhembsky told RTR television.
Russian commanders have been stung by the latest Chechen attack, having vowed to crush the last pockets of Muslim resistance by spring. The ambush also served as a stern warning to Russian commanders that the Chechens intend to repeat the brutal partisan war they waged in a 1994-1996 conflict that left Chechnya with de facto independence.
The latest death toll is the second-highest inflicted on Russian forces in a single battle by Chechen fighters, who took to the hills in February, having abandoned the capital Grozny.
February 29 saw 84 paratroopers – who count among Russia's best-trained troops – killed in a fierce mountain clash with dozens of guerrillas.
Separately, NTV reported that the corpse of a male hostage recovered in the southern Shatoi region of Chechnya could be that of a top Russian general kidnapped at Grozny airport a year ago.
General Gennady Shpigun, who represented the Russian Interior Ministry in the Muslim republic, was snatched from his plane on March 5, 1999, as he prepared to return to Moscow.
Yastrzhembsky said the death would only be confirmed once officials were 100 percent sure the body was that of Shpigun. The general was abducted as the then Russian president Boris Yeltsin lay in hospital recovering from a stomach ulcer.
The previous year, Yeltsin's personal representative to Chechnya, Valentin Vlasov, was also kidnapped, although he was freed after six months in captivity.
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