Heavy Russian assault on hostage-holding Chechen rebels

More than 60 reported dead

January 15, 1996

Web posted at: 8:50 a.m EST (1350 GMT)

From Correspondent Eileen O'Connor and wire reports

OUTSIDE PERVOMAISKAYA, Russia (CNN) -- Russian firepower blasted Chechen rebels Monday after officials said the rebels began killing some of their 100 or so hostages. Hand-to-hand fighting also was reported as Russian troops stormed the village where the rebels have been holed up since Wednesday.

One Russian soldier was reported killed. There was no immediate information on casualties among rebels or hostages. However, a rocket fired from a Russian helicopter MI-24 gunship wiped out a school where some of the captives had been held, and the Russian lines crackled with artillery, mortar and automatic weapons fire. Smoke poured from several burning buildings.





"(The Chechens) are 100 percent guilty and deserve to be killed." -- Resident of Dagestan (128K AIFF sound or 128K WAV sound)

The attack began at 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT/1 a.m. EST) on the sixth day of a tense standoff in Pervomayskaya, a tiny village in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, about two miles from the border with Chechnya. Russian officials said they attacked because the Chechen rebels started to kill their hostages, but there has been no independent confirmation. A rebel spokesman denied the rebels had killed any hostages, the Interfax news agency reported.

Ultimatum ignored

Gen. Mikhail Barsukov, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service, made contact with the rebels at 8:50 a.m. and gave them 10 minutes to come out waving white flags or face attack, but the rebels did not respond, a spokesman for the security forces, told reporters. By midday, government forces were inside the village. Masked commandos ferried in by armored vehicles were reported pouring through corridors in the northern parts of the village that had been cleared by the attacks from the air.

The ITAR-Tass news agency, quoting the Russian Interior Ministry, said the rebels had been stopped from approaching the local mosque and school where most of the hostages were held.

In a statement, Barsukov said the rebels had started killing hostages Sunday and that such acts were no longer tolerable. The captives killed Sunday were two Interior Ministry troops, Barsukov's spokesman said. ITAR-Tass, quoting unidentified security sources, said the rebels shot six more Interior Ministry personnel Monday morning. A spokesman for Russian President Boris Yeltsin said the decision to attack had been taken when "it became clear any delay aggravated the situation and put the life of the hostages in jeopardy."

ITAR-Tass quoted a spokesman for the Federal Security Service as saying Russia intercepted radio communication ordering the killing of hostages. He said the orders were sent from Dzhokhar Dudayev, the leader of the fight to win autonomy for Chechnya, who is in hiding, and his son-in-law Salman Raduyev, leader of the rebel forces in Pervomayskaya.

'I'm afraid for our people'

People in Dagestan are angry that the Chechen war for independence has spread to their part of southern Russia. "I'm afraid for our people but (the Chechens) are 100 percent guilty and deserve to be killed," one Dagestani woman said. A nurse from Pervomayskaya looked on in anguish as Russian forces blasted her village. "I spent 30 years building our home -- our cattle, our clothes and everything is there," she said .

The Russians had insisted the rebels free the hostages and give up their arms, while the Chechen rebels stood firm on demanding a guarantee of safe passage back to their breakaway republic.

The rebels -- estimated to number 150 to 250 -- had seized up to 3,000 hostages last Tuesday in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar; at least 35 people were killed in fighting. The gunmen soon released most hostages and headed for Chechnya in buses, but were stopped by Russian forces at Pervomayskaya on Wednesday. Various reports put the number of hostages still being held on Monday at 70 to 120, including women and children.

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