Fierce combat in Avtury

Chechen Commander Rizvan Chitigov contacted Kavkaz Center news and information agency over the phone and reported that a fierce combat has been going on in the village of Avtury, Shali District, since this morning. The troops of the Russian invaders and Kadyrov’s formations of collaborators are using heavy artillery and warplanes. The village is being subjected to bombings and shelling. Rizvan Chitigov also reported referring to the Mujahideen, who take part in the battle, that the collaborators and the invaders are suffering serious casualties. According to Commander Chitigov, up to 25 collaborators and at least 15 invaders have been killed. Several units of armored vehicles have been destroyed, including two APCs. No other information, including the figures of casualties among the Mujahideen, is available.

Sharoi District of C.R.I.: column attacked

Kavkaz Center correspondent reported that in Sharoi District of Chechnya the Mujahideen carried out an attack on the invaders’ column. Two armored vehicles and a Ural truck were burned.

The correspondent reported that seven invaders were killed and five seriously wounded. The Mujahideen opened fire on the column by using grenade launchers and machineguns. No casualties were incurred by the Chechen fighters. A large number of weapons were captured as spoils.

Clashes in Vedeno leave nine invaders dead

Spokesman of the Military Council of State Defense Council «Majlis al-Shura» of CRI told Kavkaz Center news agency that on Tuesday before noon the Mujahideen attacked a military column of the formations of Russian invaders on the road between Eshelhatoi and Vedeno and eliminated at least nine aggressors. During the landmine blasts and the shooting that followed, Chechen fighters burned one KAMAZ truck and a BRDM reconnaissance vehicle. The leading BMP personnel carrier was destroyed. No casualties on the Chechen side were reported.

Chechen sources reported that during the whole daylight Russian warplanes were bombing the woods nearby.

Invaders shelled Chechen village of Mairtup

One invader and one pro-Russian police officer were killed in Shali District of Chechnya in a blast of a handmade mine. Radio Liberty reported two women were killed when an artillery shell exploded during the shelling that the invaders were conducting on the village of Mairtup, Kurchaloi District. The village residents claim that their houses were shelled by the invaders.

Pro-Russian police officer killed in Chechen capital

Deputy Company Commander of pro-Russian special police force (OMON) was killed in Jokhar. Today it was reported by the Republic’s puppet structures. Unknown men opened fire at a VAZ-2115 passenger car from automatic weapons in a backyard of a house on Mozdok Street, Avtorkhan District of Jokhar. Deputy Commander of Special Police Force (OMON) of Chechnya Ibrahim Tuhugov was in the vehicle. Pro-Russian police officer died from the wounds right on the spot. The puppet structures believe that the attack had something to do with Ibrahim Tuhugov’s service. This information was reported by Moscow-based ITAR-TASS news agency.

Invaders still continue kidnapping in Chechnya

The pro-Russian structure estimated that over the first half of 2003, 267 people have been declared missing in the Republic.

«A total of 267 people were abducted in the first half of 2003. Five of these crimes have already been solved», the source reported. He also said that a total of 564 people went missing in Chechnya in 2002.

Earlier it was reported that a single database containing the names of people who were killed or went missing in Chechnya will be created in the near future.

Chechen women keep picketing

It is the third day since several dozens of women from Vedeno District have been continuing to picket the entrance on the premises of the puppet structures’ complex.

The protesters are demanding that residents of the village of Mahkety: Vakha Hochayev, Hasan Elbuzdukayev and Sultan Abubakarov are released. Early in the morning on August 15 these three men were taken away by unknown armed men in camouflage uniforms.

Interfax received this information from deputy chief of the puppet structures Ahmed Dakayev. On the first day of the picket the representatives of the protesters were allegedly received by the secretary of the so-called security council Rudnik Dudayev. But still, they did not stop rallying because the result has not been achieved.

On Wednesday the delegation of the picketers was received by the head of gang formations Akhmad Kadyrov. The protesters were informed that all of the three men had been released. However, the women stated that they would leave only after the information is verified.

Night raids in Jokhar

Both Chechen and Western sources reported that last night a demonstrative intimidation raid was conducted in Jokhar, for instance in Zavodskoy and in some other districts of the city. Armed men in military uniforms and with masks on were breaking into homes, beating the residents and screaming that they would kill them unless they vote at the so-called «presidential elections» for Akhmad Kadyrov. Kadyrov himself already had a chance to call that action «a provocation».

Russian Justice Minister asking Chechen emissary to return

Russian Justice Minister Yuri Chaika guarantees Akhmed Zakayev's safety in a Russian prison in case he is extradited from Great Britain /Zakayev is a Chechen envoy in Europe/. «The letter with my signature under such guarantees was sent to the British Home Secretary», the minister told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday.

According to Chaika, tortures or other physical and psychological pressure on convicts is not practiced in Russia. «We are always open for examinations by legal organizations, the Red Cross and the UN», Yuri Chaika added.

Moscow extended 'Chechen terms' for Russian police troops

Russian regional press, like Magnitogorsk periodicals, reported that the term of the so-called «mission» to the war in Chechnya has been increased from three to six months. Meanwhile nothing on that fact was reported by Russian central mass media. The extension of the «Chechen term» for special police forces (OMON) has already caused some protests among their families. Thus, the families of mercenaries in Magnitogorsk and Zlatoust for instance have demanded that the authorities bring their husbands back from Chechnya at the end of three months as it was specified in the contracts.