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| Caucasus |
| Russia Launches New Assault In Chechnya |
| 2002-11-04 |
| Source: BBC Russian troops have launched large-scale operations against separatist rebels throughout Chechnya, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced. Mr Ivanov also said that previous plans to reduce the Russian military presence in Chechnya had been suspended. The offensive comes a week after Russian troops stormed a Moscow theatre in which about 800 theatre-goers were taken hostage by Chechen rebels. Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted Mr Ivanov as saying that the operations launched on Saturday were aimed at "nipping the threat in the bud. In the past few days we have received more and more information that on the territory of Chechnya, and not only there, guerrilla fighters are preparing to carry out new acts of terror," he said. I hope they're going to do more than "nip it in the bud." It's like crabgrass - unless you get the roots and all, it'll keep coming back. The military actions, the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Ivanov as saying, are "broad-scale, tough and targeted". On Friday Mr Ivanov had insisted that the planned troop withdrawal from Chechnya would continue despite the hostage crisis in Moscow. Basayev was probably wondering about that, too. The only reason that move would have made sense would be to replace the consripts with good troops... Russian authorities have imposed tough restrictions on reporting from Chechnya and access there by Russian and foreign correspondents is under strong Kremlin control. That means it's not going to be pretty... Here's the first paragraph, that Jihad Unspun left off, courtesy Gazeta.ru... On Sunday Russian troops in Chechnya launched a new assault, unprecedented in scale, with most of the 60,000-strong combined federal forces and special anti-terror subunits of the Federal Security Service (FSB) taking part in special operations aimed at ''nipping the terror threat in the bud''. That's a lot more descriptive, I think. I hope they do what they need to do... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 They still keep some Cossacks around, I understand. Good luck to them! |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-11-04 19:50:21 |
| #2 Seems them Russians got some 'cowboy' instincts too. Yee Haw! |
| Posted by: Kathy K 2002-11-04 19:39:06 |
| #1 60,000+ troops? Jeez, see my comment above and repeat it here. It's times like this when I really admire that classic Russian straight thinking (and straight shooting, hopefully). |
| Posted by: John B. 2002-11-04 19:03:32 |