Federal Interior Ministry Sums Up Results Of This Year's Operations In Chechnya

This year, the federal police have confiscated from Chechen rebels 16 guns and mortars, 39 anti-tank rocket missiles, 850 grenade launchers, 80 flame throwers, and over 2,000 pieces of fire arms. Lieutenant General Stanislav Kavun, deputy commander-in-chief of the Interior Ministry forces, cited the statistics at a news briefing on the ministry premises as he summed up the results of this year's operations in Chechnya. This year, the federal police force in Chechnya has carried out 835 special operations and about 1,400 reconnaissance operations to confiscate 1 ton of explosive substances, 363 homemade explosive devices, 10,000 grenades and projectiles, and 300 radio stations, Kavun reported. They have also found 241 cars from the wanted list. According to Kavun, the strength of the Chechnya-deployed federal police force is currently 26,000 men. There have been more than 500 instances of targeting federal police this year, which have left 168 men killed and 600 others wounded. However, the rebel losses outnumber dramatically those incurred by the federal forces, Kavun would have us believe. The general remarked that the federal police force has suffered fewer losses in Chechnya this year than it did last year. This can be partly explained by a change in the tactics-the federal police have switched over from large-scale to target operations. "On the whole, the troops have done a pretty good job fulfilling the tasks assigned to them," he summed up.