On 30 December 2002, Russian troops and members of the so-called Chechen
militia carried out a monstrous act of vandalism in the town of Urus-Martan.
Accordign to reliable informations obtained from local residents, the Russian
troops and militiamen of the Urus-Martan Interior Ministry headquarters
mined and blew up a mosque not far from the local hospital.
One of the inhabitants of Urus-Martan asserts that the Russian officer who
led the destruction of the religious sanctuary called this barbarous act
"a new-year present from the Russian army to the Muslims of Chechnya".