Hell in Nazran: 200 rebels seized the town

Rebels that invaded Ingushetia last night were acting out orders of Shamil Basaev, reports website Ingushetiya.ru.

 One of the rebels who took part in the military operation in the town of Nazran reported the following information to journalists. Several rebel groups attacked the building of Ingushetia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, frontier posts in Nazran, the town of Sleptsovsk and Karabulak village late Monday night, June 21.

It is presumed they entered Ingushetia from the neighboring republics: Chechnya and North Osetiya. Afterwards, they split into groups and entered Nazran, Karabulak and Sleptsovsk.

Fierce fighting continues not far away from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At 7:45 am MSK 16 people were dead and 59 wounded were transported to the capital's hospital. Among the wounded are acting minister of internal affairs of Ingushetia Abukar Kostoev, public prosecutor of Nazran, public prosecutor of Nazran's region. According to the republic's president Murat Zyazikov, many fell victim to the attack. Ingushetia declared 3 day mourning starting June 23.

Additional military forces from North Caucasus were sent to Ingushetia. Head of Achkhoi-Mortanovski region of Chechnya, colonel Sharip Kuraev stated the following: “Administrative border is controlled by militia… and any attempt of those armed men to cross it will be promptly suppressed.”

“In the meantime, we cannot say for sure whether these raids in Nazran have been organized by military groups from Chechnya,” noted Kuraev.

He also stated that one cannot exclude the possibility that those bandits will attempt to escape in the mountains along the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. “We have this territory under control and I am certain we’ll destroy any rebel here,” noted Kuraev.

Last week, one of the Chechen rebel sites reported that one of the southern regions of Chechnya hosted a meeting of field commanders on Sunday, June 13th under leadership of a famous terrorist. The recent gathering was mainly devoted to the results of the latest “special operations” in Chechnya; they also spent a great deal of time making plans for the new raids. The site also quotes Basaev's statements regarding an entire array of newly developed attacks.

Report based on Russian media sources