MOSCOW, February 10 (AVN) - Federal airborne troops took control over the Chechen village of Itum-Kale and raised the Russian flag above the locality on Thursday, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, presidential aide for media coverage of the Chechnya campaign, told reporters.
According to him, rebels are mostly concentrated in the Argun and Vedeno gorges. In the past 24 hours, they have suffered heavy losses and are currently retreating to the Khatuni locality, he said.
Yastrzhembsky named the fall of Itum-Kale "a symbolic event," as the village opens the way to the Chechen foothills. Serzhen-Yurt, another strategic locality in the area, is fully blocked, he stressed.
The aide also said that the federals had exposed a secret guerrilla hospital near the Oktyabrskoye village. They also found and eliminated the Kavkaz TV station which had been responsible for rebel propaganda.
According to Yastrzhembsky, guerrillas have lost all armoured vehicles, but they still have cross-country trucks, recoilless guns, mortars, grenade launchers and small arms.