GROZNY, Russia, Feb 24 (AFP) - Thirty-three Russian soldiers were killed earlier this week in southern Chechnya, in one of the biggest reversals sustained by Muscovite troops in the five-month war, Russian officers said on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
The soldiers died on Tuesday near Shatoi, some 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital Grozny, where Russian troops are battling with the last resisting units of Chechen forces, officers said.
"There was an error of command," said one lieutenant-colonel, who did not wish to go into further details.
A Russian colonel said that the soldiers were killed in Russian bombing even as they battled Chechen mujahideen.
Another top military source said that some 15 elite Russian troops fell into a Chechen ambush and called for help, but the rescue unit dispatched was also taken by surprise and decimated by the mujahideen.
The toll, one of the heaviest sustained by Russian forces in a single day since the start of the war on October 1, was confirmed by senior military officials in Moscow who also spoke strictly on condition of anonymity.
The Defense Ministry would not comment on the information. Both sides have been extremely reluctant to admit officially their own losses though keen to exaggerate the setbacks sustained by the other side.
Having seized the capital Grozny and a swathe of northern Chechnya, Russian forces have pushed south and surrounded a last redoubt of several thousand Muslim warriors in Shatoi.
The fighters have been trying to break out of the pincer movement, with some trying to seek refuge in Georgia to the south, while Moscow claims that they will be wiped out shortly.
