Russian Forces Unleash New Attack In Chechnya, Kill 3 Fighters
Russian
troops
MOSCOW,
October 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Russian forces launched a
large-scale attack in the southern republic of Chechnya early Saturday,
October 26, killing three independence fighters as the hostage crisis in
Moscow came to a dramatic end.
"Army
dispatches are clearing all the regions in the republic where the
special services have learned that groups of fighters, even small
groups, are operating," ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the regional
military command for Chechnya as saying.
Three Chechen fighters were killed at Novogroznenky, east of the capital
Grozny, ITAR-TASS said.
News
of the operation broke after Russian security forces stormed a theatre
in Moscow where a group of 50 Chechen fighters had taken some 700 people
hostage, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
hostage-takers had been demanding an end to the war in the Chechnya,
which has been raging since October 1999 after Moscow sent in troops to
the independence-seeking republic on the northern slope of the Caucasus
mountains.
