Chechen fighters 'seize hostages'

A group of Chechen fighters has seized hostages in the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan, officials say.

At least four hostages were taken after a gunfight at the frontier which left nine Russian border guards dead, say local authorities.

"Our people are trying to make contact with them to find out what they want," a regional official told Russian TV.

Russia's current war in Chechnya began after fighters seized two villages in Dagestan in August 1999.

They held the villages for several weeks, saying they were supporting a declaration of an independent Islamic state in parts of Dagestan and Chechnya.

That incursion - as well as a series of bombings of apartment buildings in Russia that killed about 300 people - prompted then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to send troops into Chechnya.

Four years later, Moscow says it has pacified the rebellious republic, but fighting continues and Chechens may be behind Russia's now regular suicide bombings.

Security response

Between 25 and 50 fighters are said to be involved in the latest incident.

A Russian Interior Ministry spokesman, Roman Shchekochikhin, told the Associated Press that security forces were being sent to the village of Shauri, the scene of the reported hostage-taking.

A Dagestani official died in a car bombing in August But the village is in a remote area and is difficult to reach, he said.

It is believed the gunmen took a larger number of hostages at a local clininc before fleeing with four.

A local official told Russia's Interfax news agency that security forces had blocked roads into the village from Dagestan, Chechnya and neighbouring Georgia.

Military analysts have suggested the fighters got lost in the snowy mountains while en route to - or from - Georgia.

Dagestan's information minister, Magomedsalikh Gusayev, was killed in August when his car was bombed.

No-one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion fell on Chechen militants, as Gusayev had played a key role in the defence of Dagestan in 1999

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3319571.stm

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003. Page 1

Rebels Kill 9 in Dagestan Ambush

By Simon Saradzhyan Staff Writer A band of armed Chechen insurgents killed nine border guards and took four civilians hostage Monday before fleeing in a mountainous corner of Dagestan, leaving the military guessing where they might be headed as night fell.

The attack was the biggest incursion by Chechen rebels since they invaded Dagestan in 1999, triggering the second Chechen war. It provides a stark reminder that the situation in Chechnya and neighboring regions remains restive despite efforts by Moscow to portray a return of stability.

A heavily armed group of up to 60 insurgents entered the village of Shaury at about 3 a.m. on Monday and camped out at the local clinic. They initially tried to buy food in the village, but were acting "aggressively" from the start, Rossia television said, citing local residents.

A villager walked to the closest border guard post, in the nearby settlement of Mokokh, and alerted the servicemen about the rebels.

The commander of the outpost, Captain Radim Khalikov, and eight border guards set out for Shaury, only to be ambushed by the rebels enroute, the border guard service's North Caucasus department said in a brief statement.

The rebels used knives to finish off the wounded and beheaded Khalikov. They then took four villagers hostage and left Shaury in three vehicles, NTV television reported.

Among the hostages was an employee of the clinic and a father and son with the surname Gamidov, local officials said. No ages were provided.

Several groups of police, military commandos and border guards set out on the rebels' trail. As the day wore on, the rebels apparently split into several groups, with one band of 25 people heading north, Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgyrei Magomedtagirov told NTV, citing reports from a helicopter crew involved in the search.

Some of the rebels could be foreign mercenaries, Chechen Security Council chief Rudnik Dudayev told Interfax.

The search, which was hindered by rugged terrain, was put on hold Monday evening due to darkness.

Also units of Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and FSB's border guard service were on their way to the district to reinforce local forces, Interfax reported Monday night.

Authorities could not say late Monday where the rebels might be and what was the condition of the hostages. They also could not say where the rebels might have come from.

NTV, citing unidentified sources in the Dagestani Interior Ministry, reported that the band might have come from Dagestan's Tsumadinsky district, which borders Chechnya. Shaury is located in Dagestan's westernmost district of Tsuntinsky, some 200 kilometers from Chechnya and 20 kilometers from Georgia.

Federal officials have often blamed attacks in the North Caucasus -- including an incursion into Ingushetia in September 2002 -- on rebels who crossed over from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. However, mountain passes from Georgia into Dagestan and Chechnya are currently inaccessible due to snow.

"This is the most formidable event since 1999," a spokesman for the Dagestani branch of the Federal Security Service said by telephone from the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala. The border service is part of the FSB.

It took thousands of troops several months to rout the rebels involved in the 1999 incursion, said the spokesman, who refused to give his name.

The Chechnya conflict has grown from a separatist bid to an ideologically charged fight by Islamic extremists in and around the troubled republic, said Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Over the past few years, extremists have established ties with similar groups abroad -- including al-Qaida -- in an attempt to set up a Islamic state in the entire North Caucasus. "They have become incorporated into the system of international terrorism," Malashenko said.

Extremism has spread so far that even an end to fighting in Chechnya and an improvement in living conditions can do little to end incursions and other attacks, he said. "Three to four years ago I believed that one could have put a stop to this by ending the conflict" in Chechnya, he said. "This is no longer the case."

He estimated that natives of Dagestan and other regions in the North Caucasus other than Chechnya now account for about half of the rebel forces operating in the area.

Protest near Russian consulate points to Chechen problems

BRNO, South Moravia, Dec 11 (CTK) - About twenty anarchists demonstrated in front of the Russian General Consulate in Brno pointing out to the problems of Chechens today, on the anniversary of the beginning of the war in Chechnya.

The demonstrators performed a scene in which Russian soldiers assault and murder a Chechen family camping peacefully in a tent. The activists were cordoned off the building by police, since several years ago they sprayed the wall around the building with red colour in a similar protests. Four of them were later convicted to community service.

"Today's demonstration wants to point out that the Russian military liquidates the camps of Chechen refugees in Ingushetia and forces them to repatriation and deportation back to Chechnya," one of the activists, Milan Stefanec, told CTK.

"At the same time, we have joined the international campaign for solidarity with the victims of the Chechen war," he said. The activists also wanted to point out that Chechens do not have problems only in Russia.

"Even refugees who have asked for asylum in the Czech Republic face expulsion and deportation back to the area where war is raging," Stefanec said. After the protest, organised by the Nesehnuti (Unbendable) movement, the activists held a debate at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University. They also collected signatures under a petition asking Interior Minister Stanislav Gross to renew the asylum proceedings of a group of 60 Chechen refugees and prevent their expulsion.

The group arrived in the Czech Republic and asked for asylum some time ago. However, after hearing that their chance of receiving asylum in the Czech Republic are low, the refugees set out for Austria at the end of October. On the border near Ceske Velenice, south Bohemia, they were arrested by police.

According to the Nesehnuti movement, a total of 20,000 soldiers and 70,000 civilians have died over the 15 years of war in Chechnya, and around one-quarter of a million had to flee to the neighbouring Ingushetia, where they live in refugee camps.

Dagestan hostage drama ends as rebels flee

Ilya Zhegulev 

Up to 60 rebel Chechen fighters have ended a hostage crisis that saw at least 11 civilians being held against their will and left nine Russian servicemen dead in Dagestan. According to the Itar-Tass news agency, the gunmen have fled the Tsunti district of the mountainous republic that borders war-torn Chechnya.

Over the last 24 hours, reports put the number of illegal armed formations in the republic at three, with their total strength being estimated at around 60 gunmen. Up to 11 locals were reported to have been taken hostage after one of the groups seized the village of Galatli in the early hours of Tuesday, which was then surrounded by federal forces.

Local residents told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday that at least three groups of Chechen fighters were operating in the Tsunti district in western Dagestan, which is about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Georgia. It is still unclear where the fighters came from, but the location suggests one large group split up after getting lost on their way either from or to Georgia.

According to the accounts of local residents, the most numerous group of about 30 rebels seized the village of Galatli in the early hours of Tuesday, where they held a number of hostages. All the hostages have since been released and the gunmen have fled. It is believed that among those released were the four hostages taken from a village hospital in Shauri yesterday. According to the Dagestani Interior Ministry, the same group of rebels that crossed into Dagestan on Monday was discovered and trapped in Galatli.

''We possess such information. Exact data on the composition of the bandit group and the number of hostages are being verified,'' a spokesman for the ministry told RIA-Novosti earlier.

However, a source in the crisis headquarters set up in the republic reported that the rebels had already left Galatli. As they were leaving the village, which had been blocked by Russian troops, the rebels took several hostages and warned that no action should be taken against them or all the hostages would be killed.

Yet another group of some 15-20 militants is believed to be hiding in the vicinity of the village of Mokokh. The group was said to be holding one hostage to use as a guide. A third group of 20 rebels is apparently holed up near the villages of Shauri and Mokokh

According to local residents who saw the rebels at various locations in the Tsunti district, there appears to be 60 of them in all. They are heavily armed and well equipped with automatic weapons and grenades. The eye-witness accounts suggest some of them are travelling in two UAZ jeeps and a Volga car. One released hostage said there were Arab mercenaries among the gunmen.

The rebels stormed the village of Shauri in the early hours of Monday. A border guard unit dispatched to the village was ambushed by the rebels and was almost wiped out. Altogether, 9 border guards were killed in the clash. The body of one of them was later found beheaded.

Before leaving, the rebels took four hostages and planted landmines in the village. Sappers have gone to the village to verify the reports of mines, the press-service for the North Caucasian regional border guard directorate under the FSB reported.

After yesterday's clash with the border guards, the gunmen appeared to set off in the direction of the Chechen border. The search for the militants continued through the night in Dagestan. However, so far the pursuit has not brought any results. The combined group of forces in Chechnya has been moved into the area to block any possible retreat into Dagestan. Russian news agencies report that the rough terrain and poor weather conditions in the mountains are hampering the search. 

16 Dec. Gazeta ru 14:32

2003-12-16 10:35   

http://www.kavkaz.org.uk/russ/article.php?id=14968 (my tr.)

The commander of mujahadeen in Daghestan linked with the Kavkaz- center agency

One of the commanders of Daghestan mujahadeen, which are located in Chechnya connected over his satellite telephone and reported that on Tuesday afternoon he had link over short radio with the unit of  mujahadeen, which acts on the territory of Daghestan. According to the commander's data, till 1:30 PM the mujahadeen haven't lost not one soldier. In the progress of combat with the frontier-guards on Monday, two mujahadeen were wounded. From the Russian side according to the specified data it was destroyed by 11 and wounded 15 frontier- guards.

The commander of Daghestani-Chechen unit communicated, that except one guide, in the hands of mujahadeen there is not one hostage. Two people - a doctor and local resident of Shuary, were released on Tuesday morning after it was necessary to give a medical aid to two [wounded] soldiers.

He also reports so that in the morning Tuesday the Russian helicopters delivered a strike on the environments of the village of Gagatli. However,  the shelling produced nothing, since there already was no mujahadeen in the zone of that rocket attack. The unit mujahadeen continues to carry out combat mission on the territory of Daghestan. All reports about the plans of mujahadeen to "penetrate into Georgia" in the view of the commander of Daghestani-Chechen unit are absurd.

2003-12-16 17:37:09  

Administration head of Alkhan-Kala sttlement killed in Chechnya

GROZNY, December 16. (RIA Novosti). The body of 50-year old Nurdi Elmurzayev, head of administration of the Alkhan-Kala settlement, who was kidnapped on December 9, was found in Chechnya, the Interior Ministry of Chechnya reported on Tuesday.

The body of Elmurzayev with gunshot wounds was discovered the day before at the Petropavlovskaya village of the Grozny district on the territory of the former seed-growing station, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

He recalled that last Tuesday the unknown people kidnapped Nurdi Elmurzayev, head of the administration of Alkhan Kala, at the Grozny - Alkan-Kala highway when he was riding in his car without bodyguards.

According to the preliminary data, Nurdi Elmurzayev was abducted by armed people dressed in camouflage uniform and masks.

Later Elmurzayev's car VAZ-2105 was found at the roadside.

Investigation was launched on the murder case.