Russians Launch Attack On Village Where Hostages Held ‘The Federal Powers Cannot Put Up With This Illegal Act Any Longer’
Russian forces using artillery attacked a village today where Chechen rebels were holding more than 100 hostages. Gunfire crackled and explosions could be heard every second. The ground shook in the nearby village of Sovetskaya.
Shortly before the Russians began firing at 9 a.m. (10 p.m. Sunday PST), a Russian general said that negotiations had failed and the Russians had been forced to resort to military means to resolve the weeklong crisis.
There was no word on casualties.
“The federal powers cannot put up with this illegal act any longer and has been obliged to resort to the use of force to free the hostages,” Maj. Gen. Alexander Mikhailov told reporters.
Mikhailov was reading a statement from Gen. Mikhail Barsukov, the head of the Federal Security Service, who was in charge of the operation to free the hostages.
Earlier, Russian jets and helicopters firing flares had roared over Pervomayskaya, a bleak village where government forces had surrounded Chechen kidnappers and their hostages in the seventh day of an unnerving standoff.
The Russians have insisted in the talks that the rebels free the hostages and relinquish their arms, while the Chechens want a guarantee of safe passage back to their separatist republic.
Russian authorities said Sunday the rebels had been given the night “to think things over.” They did not specify what action would be taken if the gunmen continued to ignore demands to release the hostages.
Aircraft buzzed the mist-wrapped village during the night, apparently to maintain pressure on the rebels. Shock waves from low-flying jets broke windows in surrounding villages.
Interior Ministry officials in Moscow said the rebels took shots Sunday at Russian troops and military helicopters, wounding two soldiers. But an official from the local Interior Ministry said no shooting occurred.
The rebels have threatened to shoot the hostages if they are not allowed to return