KHANKALA. Aug 13 (Interfax-AVN) - Special operations carried out in Chechen mountains have resulted in the seizure of five portable SAM systems from guerrillas, a spokesman for the unified federal headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"Apart from those systems, federal servicemen seized several sniper rifles, grenade launchers, machine-guns and other arms from the rebels; some guerrillas were destroyed in the process," the spokesman said.
According to him, the situation in the region is "very tense".
"Extremists continue to plant mines on roads, attack strongpoints and administrative installations. From August 5 to 12, they attacked federal positions 32 times, including times 24 at night. Sappers defused over 200 explosive devices during engineering reconnaissance operations," the spokesman stressed.
He noted that combat clashes between federal servicemen and guerrillas had taken place in the city of Grozny, the Urus-Martan district, the district center Shali, the village of Novye Atagi and the Ilyinskaya village of the Grozny rural district.
According to the spokesman, over 600 rebels are getting ready to cross into Chechnya from Georgia in the near future. "The extremists are well-armed, they use some 300 horses to transport ammo," the spokesman added.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry department for Chechnya earlier told Interfax-AVN that law-enforcement bodies were carrying out special operations in several Chechen districts. Policemen were searching for batches of arms including portable SAM systems and remote-controlled mines delivered to Chechnya from Georgia's Pankisi gorge.