You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
20 dead, 40 wounded in Caucasus attack
2005-10-13
MOSCOW : At least 20 people were killed and 40 others wounded in attacks on Thursday by gunmen on government installations in the southern Russian city of Nalchik, a local hospital spokeswoman told the Echo Moskvi radio station. The spokeswoman said two of the dead appeared to be from among the gunmen who launched the attacks, but provided no further information on the identities of the other victims.
The attacks centred on local offices of the Russian FSB federal security service and the interior ministry, while Interfax news agency said the militants had attempted to attack the Nalchik airport but that effort was repulsed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in the city, which bore all the hallmarks of an operation by Chechen rebels who have vowed to continue attacks on Russian federal security installations in the volatile North Caucacus region where Chechnya is located.
There is now: Chechen rebel forces took responsibility Thursday for a coordinated attack on the southern Russian city of Nalchik, and regional President Arsen Kanokov said about 50 militants had been killed in the fighting, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The Kavkaz-Center Web site, seen as a voice for rebels loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, said it had received a short message on behalf of the Caucasus Front. It said the group is part of the Chechen rebel armed forces and includes Yarmuk, an alleged militant Islamic group based in Kabardino-Balkariya. The group's members have allegedly been involved in several attacks against police in the region, but Yarmuk chief Andemirkan Guchayev dismissed the allegations earlier this week, saying it was not involved in any illegal activities. Guchayev accused authorities of spreading false information about the group in order to justify repression against its members.
One report described the gunmen as "religious extremists" while Interfax quoted an official as saying that the attacks were in reprisal for the recent arrest in Nalchik of a group of Islamic radicals, whom the attackers attempted to free from the facility where they were being held.

In an image reminiscent of last year's Beslan school hostage siege, children were seen fleeing from a primary school building while gunfire erupted nearby and smoke hung over the area. One girl who ran out of the school said armed men were firing inside the building, but security officials later made clear that armed police had entered the school because to ensure its emergency evacuation due to its close proximity to the site of one of the buildings under attack.

Russian media said gunbattles occurred at a number of locations in Nalchik and the city centre was saturated with security forces while gunfire could be heard nearby. Police cars equipped with loudspeakers circulated in parts of the city advising local residents to evacuate the area.

The attacks in Nalchik on Wednesday were the most spectacular since the Beslan school hostage seizure last year, but came amid a steady stream of smaller-scale incidents that occur on an almost daily basis in Chechnya and adjacent provinces in the volatile north Caucasus region.

Two police officers were killed in a shootout with gunmen early Tuesday in the province of Dagestan while two other security personnel and four rebel fighters were killed in a fire-fight last Sunday. Russian troops and pro-Russian Chechen security forces have been fighting a war in Chechnya for the past six years, the second war there in a decade.

Russian officials insist the conflict is winding down and the situation normalising, but Chechen rebels have vowed to keep up attacks in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia until Russian forces leave the republic. - AFP/de
Posted by:phil_b

#6  Reminiscent of the mass city wide attacks in Ingushetia last year.
Posted by: Paul Moloney   2005-10-13 09:13  

#5  Old nasty Pegleg Basayev may have had a hand in this but it seems to lack his single minded sociopathic focus on pure mass brutality. Kavkaz claims the thugs as their own but no direct credit is attributed. Putin's going to have a busy week.
Posted by: MunkarKat   2005-10-13 08:45  

#4  The attacks in Nalchik on Wednesday were the most spectacular since the Beslan school hostage seizure last year

A sane world would call it "the Beslan massacre", but then that would be taking a side.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2005-10-13 08:23  

#3  Ol' Puttyputz doesn't need to go looking for terrorism, to lampoon his infamous tough-guy blather, it's right there under his nose, stompin' on both feet and thumpin' his family jewels at will. The Russians' record sucks. I keep hearing defenses of Puttyputz, but see nothing, zero zip zilch nada, that would make me a believer that he's anything but a media creation and thug of the same sort as his Chechy opposition, except less capable. Hell, his own people killed more Russian civilians (at the Moscow theater) than the Chechens.

So, Puttyputz, whatcha gonna do, eh?
Posted by: .com   2005-10-13 07:05  

#2  This post from some local boy at RFERL quoted a local hospital as saying that at least twenty cops were dead, but I notice the link has since been yanked from their front page. Still, the current post makes it sound like hundreds of turbans were involved in this.
Posted by: The Caucasus Nerd (Rex Rufus)   2005-10-13 06:46  

#1  CNA/AFP is now reporting 60 dead.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-10-13 06:18  

00:00