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Gun battles erupt in Chechnya's capital after militants launch attack | Gun battles erupt in Chechnya's capital after militants launch attack |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Militants attacked buildings in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, in the early hours of yesterday morning, prompting gun battles that left at least 10 security officers and six insurgents dead. | |
According to Russia’s anti-terrorist committee, three cars carrying militants drove into the city overnight, killing three traffic police officers who tried to stop them. | |
The committee said militants then occupied Grozny’s Press House, which was later destroyed, killing six of the gunmen. Video footage showed the upper floors of the Press House engulfed in flames. | |
The gunmen later holed themselves up in a school, though no students or teachers were present at the time, RIA Novosti quoted its vice-principal as saying. Russian state television showed video footage of security officers firing automatic weapons and grenade launchers at the three-storey building. | |
The fighting left 10 security officers dead and 28 injured, Russian authorities said. | |
Russian forces fought two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s, and Putin cites the pacification of Chechnya as one of the main achievements of his early years in power. | |
Under the Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov terror attacks have indeed become rare. Stability under Kadyrov has come at a price, with violent and controversial methods often employed to tame critics, and punitive tactics such as house-burning used against the families of men believed to have joined the insurgency. | |
But Grozny is unrecognisable from the charred ruins it was reduced to by Russian forces in 2000. New buildings have sprung up, a five-star hotel has opened, and the main street has been renamed Putin Avenue. The region remains volatile, and attacks in the neighbouring republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia are more frequent. | |
All schools in Grozny were closed yesterday and a “counter-terrorist operation” status was introduced by Russian authorities to allow for enhanced security measures and the use of force. | |
Kadyrov, who travelled to Moscow for Putin’s address, told journalists the security operation was over and that nine militants had been killed, though this was not verified. “We have found the bodies of nine [militants], but they [the security officers] are continuing to search,” the Interfax news agency quoted Kadyrov as saying. | |
Earlier he had uploaded a photograph to Instagram of what appeared to be the lower-half of a dead body on the street. “Dogs will die like dogs,” he wrote. | |
A video posted to the Kavkaz Centre website, which North Caucasus Islamic insurgents often use for communication, featured a man speaking Chechen who said the gunmen were acting on the orders of the rebel leader, Emir Khamzat. | A video posted to the Kavkaz Centre website, which North Caucasus Islamic insurgents often use for communication, featured a man speaking Chechen who said the gunmen were acting on the orders of the rebel leader, Emir Khamzat. |
“There are already results; Allah has destroyed them using our hand,” said the man in the clip. | |
Kadyrov has introduced a number of Islamic regulations to the region, including a ban on alcohol sales and strong advice that women should cover their heads at all times. However, the Caucasus Emirate, an Islamic terrorist group which wants to set up an Islamic state across the north Caucasus, has declared war on Kadyrov and his forces. Many of their members operate from abroad, and it is not known how many insurgents remain hiding in the forests and mountains of Chechnya. |