Chechens hit south Russia city

Chechens hit south Russia city THE SUN NALCHIK (Russia): Chechen rebels launched a large-scale attack on a southern Russian city yesterday, triggering fierce street battles with security forces that left scores dead and undermined Kremlin claims of control in the volatile North Caucasus region. The city of Nalchik, capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkaria, looked like a war zone as camouflaged security personnel ranging from local police to elite federal troops backed by armoured vehicles exchanged gunfire with gunmen who attacked at eight locations in the city. Officials said the situation in Nalchik had been brought under control but acknowledged security forces were still in a standoff with gunmen holed up in buildings at two locations in the city, including a police station where hostages were being held. They gave no details on how many gunmen were still at large or how many hostages were held, but estimates on the numbers of fighters involved in the brazen early-morning assault ranged from 100 to 300. President Vladimir Putin dispatched Dmitry Kozak, his special envoy on the North Caucasus appointed after last year's Beslan school hostage siege, to the region and ordered that the city be sealed off to stop gunmen from escaping. "Anyone who puts up resistance with weapons in his hands must be liquidated," Russian deputy interior minister Alexander Chekalin said after a meeting with Putin outside Moscow. "This order from the president will be carried out." Chekalin and the head of the Kabardino-Balkaria province, Arsen Kanokov, both stated that at least 50 rebel fighters had been killed in the clashes as well as a dozen local residents. Another official spoke of 12 policemen and 12 local residents killed. Local medical workers quoted by various Russian media put the number of people wounded in the attacks at between 90 and 150. A website frequently used by Chechen rebels, Kavkazcenter, said the attack on Nalchik was carried out by a unit of the local detachment of the armed Chechen rebel forces, which it identified as the "Yarmuk Jamat of Kabardino-Balkaria". One report said Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev had recently entered Kabardino-Balkaria, but officials said the assault was planned and executed by two other fighters already wanted for "acts of terrorism and murder" in the province. The attacks appeared to have been focused on local offices of Russia's FSB federal security service and the interior ministry, but targets also included several police stations, a private weapons store and the Nalchik airport, Russian news agencies said. The Nalchik airport was closed for part of the day but the attempted attack on the facility was thwarted and it was later reopened,. Witnesses said the attack took local residents by surprise and created panic throughout the city, which has a population of around 300,000. "I was driving by a police building and suddenly I saw the body of a dead man," said Oleg, a local resident. "I slammed on the brakes and turned around. At that moment, the fighters spotted my car ­ it was the only one on the road ­ and opened fire. The car is full of bullets but I managed to get away without being hurt." The attack, the most spectacular since Beslan in September 2004, was the latest in a series by Chechen rebels on security installations. ­ AFP