KHANKALA. Nov 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Chechen rebels went on the air 63 times on Wednesday and Thursday, electronic warfare experts in the unified federal headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Twenty-six radio contacts were registered in the networks of warlords Khattab and Shamil Basayev. Eleven of them were in Arab, two in Ukrainian and one in Afghan, the experts said.
The warlords have scaled down their radio activity because they are taking additional security measures, the experts stressed.
Speaking mostly in Arab, Khattab drew attention of subordinate field commanders to his order to beef up actions against the federal aviation. In particular, field commander Askhab was ordered to deliver portable surface-to-air missile systems kept in caches to the Nozhai-Yurt and Vedeno districts in eastern Chechnya. Warlord Khaled got Khattab's order to acquire equipment for accessing the Internet.
According to radio interception data obtained on Wednesday, a part of mercenaries started a retreat from Chechnya through Dagestan towards Baku in order to reach Afghanistan later. This is due to air strikes, an ongoing federal operation in the south-eastern Chechen mountains and upcoming winter.
The extremist are retreating to the south of the Kurchaloi district and to the Nozhai-Yurt district because there are winter bases in eastern Chechnya. Besides, routes for withdrawal to Georgia and Azerbaijan are not far from those areas, the headquarters stressed.