600 militants killed in Chechnya this year

From the beginning of this year the Joint Group of Forces in Chechnya has eliminated 600 militants, commander of the North-Caucasian military district Vladimir Boldyrev said at the district military council on Friday.

According to Boldyrev, the troop stage of the operation on Chechnya's territory is over. "The tasks the troops of the North-Caucasian district were set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and by the command of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces have been accomplished," he stressed.

The commander said that six regional command-staff mobilization exercises under the district's chief of staff were held in the district during the year, in the course of which the military recruitment departments called up about 25,000 people for service in military units for different periods of time, and also attracted more than 125,000 people as reinforcement.

According to the data cited at the council, 11 commanders' assemblies with officers of different level were held in the past academic year. More than 90 per cent of the command personnel of the North-Caucasian district participated in them.