KHANKALA. Aug 12 (Interfax-AVN) - A comprehensive fire strike was inflicted on rebel bases in Chechen areas bordering Georgia late last week, a spokesman for the unified federal headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
"According to our data, rebels lost 12 men KIA and about 15 men WIA. Residents of local villages are trying to hide the wounded. Warlord Khasan Artabayev is among the killed," the spokesman said.
A special-purpose unit destroyed field commander Khamzatkhanov and his three associates in the Vedeno district of Chechnya last week, the spokesman went on. Warlord Saikhanov was killed in a special operation of a military special-purpose detachment earlier.
"The destruction of those field commanders brought down the activity of guerrillas in the Vedeno district. According to radio interception data, remaining field commanders warn each other that a special operation has allegedly been launched with a goal to destroy bandit gang leaders," the spokesman said.
An official of the operations group of the Federal Border Guard Service in Chechnya told Interfax-AVN that the search for guerrillas hiding in the mountains would continue in the Itum- Kale district bordering Georgia on Monday and Tuesday.