KHANKALA, November 4 (AVN) - Some six to eight rebel gangs numbering 180 to 250 guerrillas are operating in the southern Chechen Vedeno and Argun gorges, a spokesman for the unified federal headquarters said on Saturday.
Guerrillas have attacked federal installations in Chechnya 19 times in the past 24 hours, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. The federals responded by eliminating a cache with 70kg of explosives and seizing 27 small arms and a few portable air defence missile systems made in the USSR.
Federal artillery inflicted strikes on five militant groups exposed by the intelligence in the Vedeno and the neighbouring Nozhai-Yurt districts. Army sappers defused 28 bombs.