Shatoy ambush

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The Shatoy ambush
Part of First Chechen War
Date April 16, 1996
Location Near Yaryshmardy, Shatoysky District, Chechnya
Result Chechen victory
Belligerents
Russian Army Chechen and foreign fighters
Commanders
Pyotr Terzovets † Ibn al-Khattab
Strength
Probably ~200 43 to 100
Casualties and losses
53 to 223 killed (probably ~100) Possibly 3 killed
Reportedly few civilians killed
v • d • e
First Chechen War

The Shatoy ambush was an April 16, 1996, attack by forces of an Arab-born commander Ibn al-Khattab near the town of Shatoy in the southern mountains of Chechnya, during the First Chechen War. While the fact of a Chechen rebel crushing victory is indiscussable, figures regarding the incident vary widely.

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[edit] The battle

The attack wrecked the column of the Russian 2nd Battalion from the 245th Motor Rifle Regiment (MRR) and killed 53 servicemen and injured 52, according to the official Russian figures.[1] The first reports by the officials said only 26 were killed and 51 wounded.[2] According to the other sources, more than 70[3][4][5] to almost 100[6][7][8][9][10] to even 223[11] soldiers of the 245th MRR died in the ambush. A few civilians who were traveling with the convoy were also reportedly killed.[12]

According to the account by the Polish volunteer Mirosław Kuleba (Władysław Wilk, Mehmed Borz), Khattab's detachment of 43 men chose a "perfect ambush spot" with a ravine and a stream on one side and a forested slope on the other side of a serpentine mountain road. The rebels first let the Russian recon squad through and then detonated an improvised explosive device under the leading tank. Simultaneously, rocket-propelled grenades hit the command vehicle, killing the Russian commander instantly, and the armoured personnel carrier (APC) at the end the column. After this, the Chechens opened fire on the rest of the Russian unit. Kuleba wrote that the three-hour attack burned 27 armoured vehicles and trucks in the convoy and only 12 out of 199 Russian soldiers "survived the slaughter", while the rebel losses were three killed and six wounded.[13]

The Russian Wikipedia article says 95 out of some 200 soldiers were killed and 21 out of 30 vehicles (one tank, one BRDM, eight BMP and 11 motor vehicles) were destroyed by 100 rebel fighters. The details of the ambush are similar to these as told as Kuleba but it also mentions futile attempts to aid the trapped convoy by federal forces based in Argun.[10]

According to the Russian book Chechenskiy Kapkan, up to 100 fighters ambushed the column of 30 Russian armoured vehicles, almost 100 soldiers were killed and "only eight escaped with their lives".[9]

According to the U.S. book The Wolves of Islam, the destroyed convoy numbered 50 vehicles (trucks, fuel tankers, APCs and a mine-clearing T-80 tank) and by Khattab's account more than 200 soldiers were killed.[14]

[edit] Aftermath

A grisly video of the aftermath of the ambush, "with Khattab walking triumphantly down a line of blackened Russian corpses",[15] gained him the early fame and a great notoriety in Russia.[16] The images of carnage also caused a new calls for the Russia's defence minister Pavel Grachev to resign.[7] The video was widely celebrated in Chechnya, while Russia suspended its troop withdrawal.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Arab-born Chechen leader 'killed', The Telegraph, 26/04/2002
  2. ^ Chechen rebels kill 26 Russian soldiers in ambush, Interfax, 96 04 17
  3. ^ KVASHNIN CALLS REPORTS THAT KHATTAB WAS WOUNDED "RUMORS.", The Jamestown Foundation, December 14, 2001
  4. ^ Russia After Communism by Rick Fawn, Stephen White, 2002
  5. ^ Realignments in Russian Foreign Policy by Rick Fawn, 2003
  6. ^ Khatab: Islamic revolutionary, BBC News, 30 September, 1999
  7. ^ a b KHATTAB KILLED, CLAIMS AN UNNAMED FSB OFFICIAL., The Jamestown Foundation, April 12, 2002
  8. ^ Portrait of 2 Warlords, The Moscow Times, September 18, 1999
  9. ^ a b CHECHNYA: TWO FEDERAL INTERVENTIONS, Conflict Studies Research Centre, January 2000
  10. ^ a b (Russian) Бой у Ярышмарды (1996)
  11. ^ The Legacy of the Arab-Afghans: A Case Study ("estimates from Moscow")
  12. ^ Did NSA Help Russia Target Dudayev? Covert Action Quarterly 1997 No. 61
  13. ^ (Polish) Czeczeński Specnaz, Komandos, June 1997
  14. ^ The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror by Paul J. Murphy, 2004
  15. ^ Obituary: Khattab, The Independent, May 1, 2002
  16. ^ The Russo-Chechen War: A Threat to Stability in the Middle East and Eurasia?, Middle East Policy Council, March 2001

[edit] External links

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