Zhani-Vedeno ambush

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Zhani-Vedeno

Date	March 29, 2000
Location	Near Zhani-Vedeno, Chechnya
Result	Chechen victory

Combatants

Perm OMON
Other Russian forces

Chechen militia
Foreign mujahideen

Commanders

Valentin Simonov †

Ibn al-Khattab (area)

Strength

[1] First column: 49
[2] Second column: 107
Gunship helicopters

[1] 200 (est.)
[2] Dozens

Casualties

At least 36 KIA and 20 WIA
10 POW (9 executed later)

N/A

Second Chechen War
Bamut – 1st Argun – Urus-Martan – 1st Shali – 1st Grozny – Shali-Argun-Gudermes – Dzhalka – 2nd Shali – Ulus-Kert – Serzhen-Yurt – Galashki – Vedeno – Komsomolskoye – 2nd Argun – 3rd Argun – Zhani-Vedeno – Gudermes – Khankala – Galashki – Nazran – Avtury – 2nd Grozny – Nalchik

The Battle of Zhani-Vedeno was a March 29, 2000 engagement near Vedeno in southern Chechnya. It resulted in deaths of some 46 Russian soldiers, mostly members of OMON paramilitary police. The ambush, one of several in few weeks, was a serious embarrassment for the Kremlin, which insisted for at least two days afterwards that only three men had been killed.

[edit] Battle

A Russian column, consisting of an armoured personnel carrier (APC) and two trucks and led by Major Valentin Simonov, was on its way to conduct a mopping-up operation in Tsentoroi, near Vedeno, when it was attacked after accidentally discovering a small group of separatist fighters hiding in a half-destroyed sheepfold.

The column commander was the first to be killed, shot by the fighters as he entered the door. Once the fighting started, rebels who were hiding in nearby forests joined in and encircled the column. The first volley of rocket propelled grenades blew-up a truck carrying the unit's grenade launchers, leaving the Russians under heavy fire from the unseen enemy and with a small arms only. Soon the APC was hit as well, and these who could made a desperate run for their lives.

A second convoy, including two APCs, was then sent to the rescue but was ambushed on the way. At least three of its soldiers were killed and 16 were wounded before the rescue mission was forced to retreat. Rocket and strafing attacks of the helicopter gunships also failed to dislodge the guerillas.

Of the first column, only six troops succeeded in escaping and hid in a forest; ten Russians were captured. Majority of the dead were from Perm, members of OMON paramilitary forces as well a few members of regular police and military units.

[edit] Aftermath

At first, press spokesmen claimed that one soldier had been killed, four wounded and the rest were missing. Despite the fact only six troops got away, the Kremlin spokesman for Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, told reporters that "of the 49 troops who were in the column yesterday, 16 are alive and doing well. They are absolutely safe now." [1] On the same day, Russia's Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo that the situation in Chechnya "is being fully controlled" by the Russian military.

The rebels executed the nine prisoners on the morning of April 4, 2000. The men were killed, they said, because the Russians had refused to hand over a tank commander, Yuri Budanov, accused of raping and killing an 18-year-old Chechen woman. [2] Meanwhile, three officers of the elite Alpha Group leading the search for missing troops were killed by a land mine.

In 2002, CNN discovered, and broadcasted in its Forgotten War program, a video footage of the events leading to the battle, filmed by one of the column's OMON troops. The soldier was killed alongside the commander in the initial shooting, his camera still running.