RUSSIA: CHECHNYA: RUSSIAN TROOPS ATTACK REBEL STRONGHOLDS

Описание: (20 Mar 1995) Natural Sound

Russian troops have mounted attacks on remaining rebel strongholds in Chechnya, targeting a town northeast of the capital Grozny.

The situation in Grozny is increasingly desperate, forcing many residents to leave.

Russian troops moved in on the rebel strongholds, concentrating their firepower on the town of Gudermes, 19 miles (30 kilometres) northeast of the capital Grozny.

The town came under heavy air and ground attacks.

Two convoys of Russian armoured vehicles and troop transport trucks headed to the separatist republic's eastern sector over the weekend.

The Russian movement included light tanks, Armoured Personnel Carriers and trucks full of soldiers.

Gudermes and the nearby town of Argun along with Shali south of the capital, remain the main bases for rebel fighters backing Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the new offensive and said Chechen separatists were taking urgent steps to strengthen their positions.

The attacks are the first significant military action by Moscow since its forces captured Grozny earlier this year.

Meanwhile in Grozny, a city of 400-thousand people before the war, the situation remains very difficult for those who have returned to the city.

They are forced to stand in queues, sometimes for the whole day to receive water.

Some have given up and are leaving with whatever belongings they have left.

At least 13-hundred Russian servicemen have died in the fighting that
began in mid-December when Moscow sent its troops into Chechnya to crush its independence drive.

The number of Chechen dead is unknown, but some independent
observers believe it exceeds 20-thousand, most of them civilians.

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