Posted on 06/21/2004 5:18:58 PM PDT by BenLurkin
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) - In nearly simultaneous attacks, assailants armed with grenade- and rocket-launchers seized the Interior Ministry headquarters and police buildings in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, local officials said Tuesday. Ingushetia's acting Interior Minister was killed, and witnesses reported at least six other people dead. Emergency and military officials estimated 100 to 300 armed assailants were involved in the attacks, which took place in the city of Nazran and at least one village, Karabulak.
An official from the Ingush Interior Ministry said it was not immediately clear who the attackers were, but said some of them were shouting "Allahu akhbar" - a frequent cry of Chechnya's separatist rebels as their insurgency increasingly comes under the influence of radical Islam.
Fighting from the 4-year-old Chechen war has occasionally spilled into Ingushetia, highlighting the Russian military's ineffectiveness against the rebels despite having heavier weapons and far superior manpower.
But the latest attack comes after recent statements by separatist leaders indicating plans to step up military actions outside of Chechnya.
In addition to the Interior Ministry building in Nazran, which was attacked late Monday, assailants seized police buildings in Karabulak, the Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Emergency officials in Rostov-on-Don said that the fighters had targeted border guard posts in Karabulak and Nazran, and that three Russian servicemen had been wounded.
Acting Ingush Interior Minister Abukar Koshtoyev was wounded in the first minutes of the fighting in Nazran and was taken to Vladikavkaz in neighboring North Ossetia, where he died, the Ingush Interior Ministry official said. A convoy of three ambulances later could be seen speeding into Vladikavkaz from Ingushetia.
The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the building of the border guard service in Nazran and an Interior Ministry warehouse in the city were on fire.
A three-man crew from Russia's NTV television said they came upon some of the attackers at a border crossing as the crew tried to reach Nazran from neighboring North Ossetia.
"Out of the dark, a voice says 'Stop, put your hands on the hood,' said NTV correspondent Maxim Berezin. "A man carrying an automatic weapon came up. 'Who are you?' 'We're from NTV.' He took a few steps back, as if to shoot us.
"Then he said, 'Say that we are the Martyr's Brigade,' I don't remember of whom, Abu, Alyua, I don't remember what he said. 'We have shot everyone here. Go and announce that.'"
Berezin said he was able to identify them as militants because they were wearing masks and were speaking accented Russian.
In an interview on Radio Liberty last week, Chechnya's separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov, said rebels were preparing to undertake new offensives.
"We are planning to change tactics. Before, we concentrated our efforts on acts of sabotage, but soon we are planning to start active military actions," he said.
Maskhadov's foreign emissary, Akhmed Zakayev, was quoted Monday by the newspaper Kommersant as saying the decision was made at a rebel council this month after rebel commanders including Shamil Basayev demanded more resolute military action, including outside the borders of Chechnya.
The last major rebel incursion into Ingushetia was in October 2002, when a band of fighters attacked Russian forces well inside the republic near the village of Galashki, killing 17 servicemen.
Although Chechnya is a largely Muslim region in overwhelmingly Christian Russia, the first of Chechnya's two wars in the past decade was an essentially secular conflict. However, after Russian troops pulled out when Chechen rebels fought them to a standstill, the separatists increasingly took on a specifically Islamic mantle.
Basayev and the late Saudi-born Chechen warlord Khattab professed adherence to the Wahhabi sect of Islam, also embraced by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Another Saudi-born rebel commander, Abu Walid, was seen as becoming increasingly influential in the Chechen conflict, but he was reportedly killed in the spring.
Russian officials allege that the rebels' ranks include fighters trained by al-Qaida and consistently portray the war as part of the international fight against terrorism, rejecting foreign criticism of the Kremlin's refusal to negotiate with the rebels.
Monday's fighting came as Russian and Moscow-backed Chechen officials prepared for an August election to replace Kremlin-backed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, who was killed in a bomb attack last month. The Kremlin has indicated support for Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov as his replacement.
Heavy shooting was also reported in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya to the east, the Interfax news agency said. However, local officials said there was no apparent link to the fighting in Ingushetia; Isamudin Rabudanov, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service in Makhachkala, said security services were trying to catch a criminal band.
AP-ES-06-21-04 1934EDT
Chechnya's separatist rebels as their insurgency increasingly comes under the influence of radical Islam.
What is the matter with the politically correct news media? Call these "assailants" what they really are. Terrorist Muslims. See, that didn't hurt. Now, news media, you try it.
Call these "assailants" what they really are. Terrorist Muslims - BUMP!
OHH look like Vlad won't be happy
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