bobdina
09-05-2009, 10:38 AM
The spectre of suicide bombers penetrating into the heart of Moscow came back to haunt Russia today after authorities said they had shot dead five militants, two of whom had explosive belts and tickets to the capital.
Chechen security forces said they had killed two rebel fighters in the republic's second city of Gudermes during a shootout on Friday night.
The insurgents were found to have explosives strapped to them, hand grenades and train tickets to Moscow, officials said.
Law enforcement agents also said they shot dead three men during a gun battle in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, including the senior rebel commander Rustam Dzortov. Another rebel escaped wounded and his body was found later in nearby woodland.
Russia is facing a major insurgency by Islamist radicals across the north Caucasus. In recent months they have successfully launched spectacular attacks, including an assassination attempt on Ingushetia's Kremlin-appointed president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and the devastating bombing of a police station in the town of Nazran.
Most ominously the militants appear to have revived the suicide bombings used extensively during the Kremlin's brutal second Chechen war from 1999 to 2005. This spring, the veteran Chechen guerrilla leader Doku Umarov said he was reviving the notorious Riyadus Salikhin group, a suicide battalion of "Chechen martyrs".
On 22 June a suicide bomber rammed into Yevkurov's heavily armoured Mercedes, leaving him seriously injured. Officials say Dzortov was behind the attack. In July another bomber blew himself up outside Grozny's theatre. Last month four suicide bombers on bicycles killing four policemen in Grozny.
Yesterday human rights activists said a new generation of radicalised teenage fighters had gone off to join the rebels in the forests and mountains of Chechnya. They said the wanton behaviour of local law enforcement agencies, responsible for a string of "disappearances", and for reprisals against the rebels' families had made the situation worse.
"It's a very serious situation," said Tanya Lokshina, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. "The insurgency has been incredibly active and quite successful. It's been flourishing for two years in Ingushetia. We can describe it as [a] jihadist insurgency under a single command.
"They [the rebels] are very young, teenagers mostly. They are different from their older brothers in that they don't have many recollections of the war. They are not as worn out. They feel humiliated and oppressed. There are a higher and higher number of recruits, whose families are then targeted. It's a vicious circle."
The Kremlin has found itself unable to stop rampant violence in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan to the east. Claims that the region is peaceful are increasingly ludicrous. In April the Kremlin cancelled its counter-terrorist regime in Chechnya, increasing the power of Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's pro-Moscow president.
Human rights groups accuse Kadyrov of being behind innumerable human rights abuses, including the murders of several prominent human rights activists such as Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted from her home in Grozny in July and shot dead. Kadyrov denies the claim, though in a recent interview he dismissed Estemirova, who worked for the Russian rights organisation Memorial, as "someone without honour".
Chechen security forces said they had killed two rebel fighters in the republic's second city of Gudermes during a shootout on Friday night.
The insurgents were found to have explosives strapped to them, hand grenades and train tickets to Moscow, officials said.
Law enforcement agents also said they shot dead three men during a gun battle in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, including the senior rebel commander Rustam Dzortov. Another rebel escaped wounded and his body was found later in nearby woodland.
Russia is facing a major insurgency by Islamist radicals across the north Caucasus. In recent months they have successfully launched spectacular attacks, including an assassination attempt on Ingushetia's Kremlin-appointed president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and the devastating bombing of a police station in the town of Nazran.
Most ominously the militants appear to have revived the suicide bombings used extensively during the Kremlin's brutal second Chechen war from 1999 to 2005. This spring, the veteran Chechen guerrilla leader Doku Umarov said he was reviving the notorious Riyadus Salikhin group, a suicide battalion of "Chechen martyrs".
On 22 June a suicide bomber rammed into Yevkurov's heavily armoured Mercedes, leaving him seriously injured. Officials say Dzortov was behind the attack. In July another bomber blew himself up outside Grozny's theatre. Last month four suicide bombers on bicycles killing four policemen in Grozny.
Yesterday human rights activists said a new generation of radicalised teenage fighters had gone off to join the rebels in the forests and mountains of Chechnya. They said the wanton behaviour of local law enforcement agencies, responsible for a string of "disappearances", and for reprisals against the rebels' families had made the situation worse.
"It's a very serious situation," said Tanya Lokshina, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. "The insurgency has been incredibly active and quite successful. It's been flourishing for two years in Ingushetia. We can describe it as [a] jihadist insurgency under a single command.
"They [the rebels] are very young, teenagers mostly. They are different from their older brothers in that they don't have many recollections of the war. They are not as worn out. They feel humiliated and oppressed. There are a higher and higher number of recruits, whose families are then targeted. It's a vicious circle."
The Kremlin has found itself unable to stop rampant violence in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan to the east. Claims that the region is peaceful are increasingly ludicrous. In April the Kremlin cancelled its counter-terrorist regime in Chechnya, increasing the power of Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's pro-Moscow president.
Human rights groups accuse Kadyrov of being behind innumerable human rights abuses, including the murders of several prominent human rights activists such as Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted from her home in Grozny in July and shot dead. Kadyrov denies the claim, though in a recent interview he dismissed Estemirova, who worked for the Russian rights organisation Memorial, as "someone without honour".