KHANKALA, March 15 (AVN) - Chechen rebels have scaled up recruitment of youths paying to new recruits in counterfeited US dollars, a spokesman for the unified federal headquarters said on Thursday.
As it was earlier reported, warlord Shamil Basayev received counterfeited US dollar bills worth three million from Afghanistan. The military have obtained confirmation that the bills are already working, as each new guerrilla is paid USD500 at once and promised another USD500 a month, the spokesman told the Military News Agency.
Youths as young as 14 are accepted into rebel gangs, the spokesman stressed.
Federals have registered 14 attacks on their installations throughout Chechnya including six in Grozny in the past 24 hours. A federal sapper party came under fire in the southern Chechen Vedeno district and a servicemen got a light wound.
Sappers lifted 19 explosive devices on Wednesday, the spokesman said. Two powerful landmines were disarmed in the way of a federal military convoy.
Scouting parties destroyed two warm blindages and an observation tower in Chechen forests and mountains. Two rebels were killed and three more detained.