MOSCOW, JANUARY 27: More than one thousand Russian soldiers have perished, and over 3,000 injured in the current Caucasian Operations, the Russian defence ministry has said.Gen Valery Manilov, chief of the general staff of the armed forces said acting president Vladimir Putin had ordered that the casualty figures be revealed. Terming the move unprecedented, he said, ``No where in the world does a government put out the exact number of fatalities.''According to the figures released last night by the ministry, 1071 soldiers have been killed in the Chechen conflict. Gen Manilov was quoted by Novosti as saying that as many as 10,000 Chechen militants and foreign mercenaries were killed in the Russian military offensive. About 3,000 militants, half of which were foreign mercenaries continued to battle the federal troops in Grozny, he said.Approximately 20,000 militants are still holed up in Chechnya, but all of them will be exterminated, Gen Manilov asserted.Meanwhile, the Russian armyspokesperson said the air force could not carry out strikes on Chechen targets for the past two days due to inclement weather, but added that the troops continued to advance towards rebel positions in Grozny, after taking over the central square `Minutka'.The spokesperson, however conceded that the guerrillas were putting up a formidable fight and had converted every house into a veritable fortress, Voice of Russia, added.Moscow defence analyst Oleg Odnokolenko said the Chechen campaign was a `sisyphus stone' (endless and tiring) for Putin, while commenting on the prolonged war.Putin also intends to introduce radical reforms in the upper echelons of the armed forces, the defence expert notes in his media diary circulated by Novosti.
