Federal troops and members of the Chechen presidentâs security service have destroyed 15 large rebel bases and 14 caches with arms and ammunition in the republic since March 29, spokesman for the headquarters of the federal forces in the region Colonel Ilya Shabalkin told Tass on Monday. He said three powerful landmines had been found near the Samashki village, the Achkhoi-Martan district. Each bomb filled with explosives and fragments of metal was equivalent to 40 kilograms of TNT. âIf such a bomb were detonated in a crowded place, the number of resulting victims could be not fewer than 300 people,â Shabalkin said.
The colonel noted that the 15 bases had been destroyed in the republicâ s Achkhoi-Martan, Urus-Martan, Vedeno, Grozny, Gudermes, Kurchaloi and Nozhai-Yurt districts. Twenty four anti-tank grenade launchers, 40 pieces of small arms, some 20,000 cartridges, 38 hand grenades, 23 artillery and mortar shells, 150 kilos of explosives and 14 homemade mines had been seized at the bases. âBandits planned to detonate the bombs in crowded places,â Shabalkin said. Federals arrested nine would-be bombers. Federal troops have also destroyed some caches with ammunition in the mountainous part of Chechnya, Tass learned from a source at the Russian military base of Khankala. A source at the press center of the Russian Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus said police forces had destroyed a cache on the outskirts of the town of Urus-Martan. They had removed from the cache some 500 cartridges for small arms, several sticks of TNT and a Kalashnikov assault rifle. In the Nozhai-Yurt district, policemen managed to uncover a cache with two grenade launchers, a powerful landmine and cartridges. |