Up to 20 militants, 6 foreign mercenaries among them, eliminated in Chechnya

On Saturday, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the regional operational headquarters for the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, reported that in the course of a special army operation in the mountainous and wooded area of the Achkhoi-Martan and Urus-Martan districts of Chechnya up to 20 militants were eliminated, including 6 foreign mercenaries-citizens of Turkey and Arabs by birth.

According to Shabalkin, the operation is nearing its completion, and is aimed at discovering and eliminating members of illegal armed groupings and remnants of the gang which infiltrated Ingushetia and Chechnya from Georgia. Shabalkin also indicated that militants's arms and ammunition caches had been discovered and destroyed.

Shabalkin stressed that presently the situation in the operation zone and in the border area was being returning back to normal. According to him, subversive and terrorist acts have been almost totally curbed. They have registered not a single case of shelling federal forces' garrisons, as well as crimes against local civilians.