Chechen ultras kill 57 in strike on Ingushetia

Russian President Vladimir Putin today asked his top security chiefs to find Chechen fighters and destroy them. He said this after Chechen m...

Russian President Vladimir Putin today asked his top security chiefs to find Chechen fighters and destroy them. He said this after Chechen militants killed 57 people and injured over 50 others in Muslim-dominated Ingushetia on Monday night.

‘‘They should be found and destroyed and, if possible, should be captured alive and taken to court,’’ Putin said during an emergency meeting with the heads of army, the police and the security services. In the attack, Chechen militants had targeted security headquarters in the towns of Nazran and Karabulka, and Sleptsovskaya village in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya.

The militants who launched attacks at about 11:00 pm (12:30 am IST) on Monday night, at different strategic points, in the region, left the police headquarters in Nazran gutted and several other buildings badly damaged. According to television reports, additional reinforcements and Russian troops based in southern Russia were rushed to the scene to support the beleaguered local forces.

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The coordinated operation in Ingushetia, mainly in Nazran, the former Ingush capital, led to a fierce overnight battle involving grenade-launchers and automatic weapons as security forces tried to dislodge the rebels from the Interior Ministry building.

Ingushetia Interior Ministry chief spokesman Yakhya Khadziyev said that among the 57 dead, 18 were law enforcement officers.

Those killed included acting Ingush Interior Minister Abukar Kostoyev, Nazran city chief prosecutor Mukharbek Buzurtanov and Nazran district chief prosecutor Bilan Oziyev. Khadziyev said two guerrillas were also killed and their bodies were being identified.

Ingushetia, whose mainly Muslim population is ethnically close to the Chechens, has frequently suffered due to the spillover of violence from its separatist neighbour.

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