21 August 2003, 20:03
According to information of the military, 12 separatists were killed during fight of Avtury
Army subunits and officials of the Security Service of the head of the Chechen Administration liquidated 12 separatists in the fight with a large formation of separatists blocked in near the village of Avtury.
It was reported on Wednesday evening by Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, an official representative of the regional operations staff for control of the antiterrorist operation in the Northern Caucasus. He also said that ?many of the separatists blocked in were wounded, and the liquidation of the militant group was still going on?.
Shabalkin stressed ?for that moment the regional operations staff did not have information that there were some of the top leaders of Chechen units among the blocked in militants?.
In his turn, the head of the administration of the Shalinsky region Sherip Alikhajiyev alleged one official of the Security Service of the head of the Chechen Administration and one serviceman had been killed during the operation in the region of the village Avtury. Besides, according to his information, the militants took hostage a militiaman of the Shalinsky Regional Interior Department.
The head of the administration also said a small group of militants had managed to escape to the forest.
Source: Interfax News Agency
