| How many people died as a result of the militant raid will only be revealed today Only today the authorities of Ingushetia plan to announce final data on the number of victims of the attack by Chechen militants on the republic on the night of June 22. At first it was assumed that as a result of fierce fighting that lasted for several hours in Nazran, the village of Karabulak and the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, about 50 people were killed, the vast majority of whom were employees of local special services. However, throughout yesterday the list of victims of the tragedy was constantly growing and by the evening it had almost doubled.
Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District Vladimir Yakovlev announced that the deaths of 75 people had been reliably confirmed, including 24 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, ten of the FSB, five employees of the prosecutor's office, 19 military and riot police officers and 14 civilians. According to the plenipotentiary, 50 people were wounded during the attack. However, almost immediately, representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ingushetia reported that, according to their data, 95 people became victims of the tragedy. At the same time, it turned out that in addition to 24 Ingush policemen, 11 more employees of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Kursk and Samara regions were killed at the hands of the separatists, including the deputy head of the Samara Main Internal Affairs Directorate Fanis Karimov, who were on a business trip, and two operatives from Chechnya. It was immediately known that acting officers were shot on the streets of Nazran on Tuesday night. Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia Abulkar Kostoev, his deputy Zyaudin Khatiev and Nazran prosecutor Mukharbek Buzurtanov. Yesterday it turned out that as a result of the bandits’ raid, the head of the postal department of Ingushetia, Mukha Maysagov, also died.
Even more conflicting data was reported yesterday regarding the number of wounded. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported about 90 victims, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the republic - about 120. However, everyone noted that these data are constantly changing. So, just yesterday about 20 people turned to hospitals for medical help, initially deciding to be treated at home. In addition, during the day, seven more people were found in different areas of the republic, killed, apparently, during the retreat of the bandits. Counting the victims of the tragedy was also made difficult by the fact that many of the dead were not taken to morgues, since their relatives, after discovery, took them away to bury them themselves. Nevertheless, the authorities have already decided on the volume of assistance to those injured as a result of the attack. Yesterday, the President of Ingushetia issued a decree according to which the families of the victims will receive 100 thousand rubles, the seriously wounded - 50 thousand, the lightly wounded - 15 thousand rubles.
The President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, yesterday estimated the material damage from the massacre at approximately 600 million rubles. The militants completely destroyed the building of the Nazran police department, partially burned the main building of the 137th border detachment, seriously damaged the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office, the buildings of the Nazran city police department and the police post in Karabulak, not counting numerous posts and pickets in the vicinity of Nazran and dozens of cars. Also, militants in Nazran knocked out two armored personnel carriers.
However, the most unpleasant “material” consequence of the separatist raid for the authorities, quite obviously, was the looting of two weapons warehouses, from which the militants took out two KamAZ trucks with weapons. According to the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs, the separatists stole more than 300 pistols, 322 machine guns, 22 grenade launchers, six machine guns, 190 hand grenades and 68 thousand cartridges. Even without a purely political effect, this circumstance places the events in Ingushetia in the category of unprecedented emergencies. When Chechen terrorists attacked other cities and villages, blew up houses and trains, they only killed and destroyed. Here the separatists were able not only to complete their main “combat” mission, but also received weapons that could be enough to carry out a dozen more similar large-scale raids.
As for the militants themselves, yesterday the military, who, according to their statements, began pursuing and blocking the detachment as early as Tuesday morning, could not find any traces of them. Yesterday, special forces groups carried out “targeted checks” in the villages of Galashki and Muzhichi, in the direction of which the militants seemed to be leaving, and combed the forests along the Assinovsky Gorge. At the same time, artillery and aviation carried out massive attacks on the “alleged escape routes” of the bandits. However, there were no reports of the capture or destruction of participants in the attack.
President Marat Zyazikov, however, announced on Tuesday that five people had been detained after the night’s fighting. He said that among these five there were citizens of foreign countries and Slavs. But who they are, what evidence they give and whether they give evidence at all - not a word. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia does not know anything about them either. They categorically stated that they had not even heard about the prisoners, moreover, perhaps this was just misinformation. However, in informal conversations, local intelligence officers put forward a version of where the militants could have gone. According to them, most of the attackers most likely first dispersed into the forests and then went home - both in Chechnya and in Ingushetia, where they live under the guise of refugees. Also, operatives have already found out that the main fist of the separatist detachment arrived in Ingushetia from the eastern regions of Chechnya, and the attack was allegedly led by field commander Magomed Yevloev, who has been active in those places for a long time. Moreover, yesterday representatives of the Ingush FSB admitted that half an hour before the attack they received information about the movement of cars with armed people around the republic. “But we did not expect such a scale—a simultaneous attack on 15 targets,” said one of the counterintelligence officers.
It is worth noting that Chechen operatives, as the Vremya Novostey newspaper already reported, had operational information several weeks earlier that the militants were preparing a large-scale attack on populated areas. And yesterday, the head of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alu Alkhanov, directly stated that the militants could repeat the “Ingush scenario.” According to him, “extremists may try to attack Dagestan, Ossetia or Kabardino-Balkaria.” In Chechnya itself, by the way, just yesterday morning the battle ended near the village of Avtury, which another large detachment of militants tried to capture. Three federal soldiers died in the shootout. The bandits retreated, and nothing was known about their losses. Victor PAUKOV, Yuri MATSARSKY |
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