Russian troops kill 49 rebels
Anti-terror unit raids bases in North Caucasus
MOSCOW: Russian troops have killed 49 militants in a massive security sweep that followed angry comments from President Vladimir Putin about raging violence in the troubled North Caucasus.
The National Anti- Terror Committee said the operation was conducted across several republics of the volatile Muslim region and resulted in the removal of some of the most “odious” guerilla commanders and their followers.
“The coordinated action helped terminate the activities of several odious gang leaders, gang members and their associates, substantially damaging the system under which the bandits operate,” the Interfax news agency quoted a committee statement as saying.
The committee said the “largescale and massive” raids involved both local and federal troops and that 90 militia bases had been destroyed.
However, it gave no details about the time frame for the operation or when it started.
Putin held a meeting on Friday on the North Caucasus in which he berated officials for failing to do enough to bring the region under full control after it witnessed two post-Soviet wars for the independence of rebel Chechnya.
The region has since witnessed an Islamist insurgence that has focused most heavily on Chechnya’s larger eastern neighbour Dagestan and the tiny, poverty-wrecked republic of Ingushetia.
Russian officials are especially concerned about security on the restless frontier as they prepare to stage the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, near the border with ex-Soviet Georgia.
Putin referred to the Winter Games and Russia’s subsequent plans to host the football World Cup in 2018 as reasons to keep a close eye on the problem.
“I would like to point out that a series of very major events – both sports-related and political – will soon be held in Russia,” Putin told his most senior security advisers during the meeting.
“It is a matter of honour for all law enforcement officials to ensure that these events are staged in a normal, business-like and festive manner, so that nothing can put a pall over these events.”