- MOSCOW (AFP) - A Russian
Mi-24 military helicopter was shot down by a missile in the breakaway republic
of Chechnya, killing the two pilots, the ITAR-TASS news agency said, less
than two weeks after the deadliest attack in the Chechen war left 118 dead.
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- The attack was immediately claimed by separatist leader
Aslan Maskhadov, his press office said.
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- On August 19, an Mi-26 helicopter was shot down near
Grozny by a missile fired by rebels, according to an official investigation.
A total of 118 people were killed, the worst such incident in three years
of fighting against Chechen separatists.
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- "The presidential guard shot down a helicopter near
the village of Beshil-Irzu, in the region of Nozhay-Yurt, about 100 kilometers
(160 miles) southeast of Grozny," a spokesman for Maskhadov told AFP.
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- The Russian defense ministry confirmed that a helicopter
had been "shot down" at 1145 GMT, but gave no further details,
the Interfax news agency reported.
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- Military officials quoted by ITAR-TASS said two Mi-24
combat helicopters were escorting an Mi-8 transport helicopter that was
bringing provisions to Russian troops stationed in the mountains.
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- The pilot of the first Mi-24 noticed the absence of the
second chopper. After a search, he discovered the wreckage on the ground
and radioed a team of rescuers, who arrived on the scene in an Mi-8.
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- A source in the Russian high command in the North Caucasus
said the rescue team reported the helicopter had been downed by a missile.
ITAR-TASS said the two pilots were killed.
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- Analysts say the two helicopter attacks signal an intensification
of the battle against Russia's air mobility and follow a reconcilliation
between rival rebel groups.
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- Shortly before the attack on the Mi-26, Mashkadov reached
agreement with two Islamic fundamentalist leaders, Movladi Udugov and Zelimkhan
Yandarbyev, according to one of his associates, who said the rebel forces
had been united under one command.
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- He has also reconciled himself with a radical warlord,
Shamil Bassaev, who was appointed the "chief of the committee for
operational management of the Chechen forces."
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- Ilias Mussaev, who works for the pro-rebel Chechen press
agency, said the unification had been forced on the rebels by the Russian
refusal to enter into any negotiations.
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- "There is no other option other than to intensify
the fighting," Mussaev said.
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- Western criticism of Russia's actions in Chechnya, launched
in 1999 as a self-proclaimed anti-terrorist measure after an earlier 1994-96
war have lessened notably since the September 11 attacks by Islamic militants
on the World Trade Center in New York.
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- Russia says it has lost around 4,500 troops in the Chechen
conflict. Anti-war groups in the country say the true toll may be three
times as high.
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