KHANKALA. June 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Airborne battalion-size task forces, attached to the Combined Federal Force in the North Caucasus, have reinforced mobile border guard units on the Georgian-Chechen part of the state border.
"Two battalion-size task forces of the 76th Airborne Division, manned with volunteers, were redeployed on Tuesday to reinforce mobile border guard units, guarding the Georgian- Chechen part of the state border," a source in the Combined Federal Force headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The source noted that the main objective, facing airborne troops, consists in preventing guerillas from leaving Ingushetia and crossing the Russian state border. "The main task to be discharged by airborne troops is to assist border guard mobile units in guarding the Georgian-Chechen border, as well as hunt down and destroy guerilla units, dispersed after the Tuesday attack on Nazran and other Ingush towns," the source said.
At the present time the airborne troops, attached to the Combined Federal Force, include four battalion-size task forces, and a reconnaissance unit from a detached airborne reconnaissance regiment. The total strength of the airborne troops, deployed in Chechnya, amounts to over 2,300 men, as well as 400 weapon systems and armored vehicles.