GROZNY. Feb 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Federal troops launched a large-scale operation aimed at exposing rebels, arms and ammo in villages located in the Khankala gorge 5km south of Grozny, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, official of the PR center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
The federals blocked the Gikalo and Prigorodnoye villages, Shabalkin said. In Gikalo, rebels attacked federals from an ambush and wounded a serviceman. Reprisal fire killed three rebels. Arms and ammo were taken from the scene of the engagement. Experts are identifying the dead bodies while servicemen are thoroughly searching country houses and the forest near the village.
Rebels carried out terrorist acts and attacked federal convoys many times in the area, which resulted in casualties among the military.
Participants in the operation are paying special attention to the territory of a half-ruined cannery and several hundred hectares of grass-houses where rebel arms caches and bases might be located.
The Grozny-Shatoi motorway which goes through both villages is open for vehicles. Shabalkin said that the blockade of the motorway would isolate several districts of the breakaway republic from Grozny.