DATE=1/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA/CHECHNYA (S)
NUMBER=2-258409
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian troops and Chechen rebels are locked
in a fierce battle for control of a strategic square
near the center of Grozny. Correspondent Peter
Heinlein reports from Moscow.
TEXT: Chechen rebels are reported holding in the face
of a ferocious Russian assault around Minutka Square,
a main junction leading to the center of the city.
The square has been the scene of several deadly
battles, in the current war and the previous one, from
1994 to 1996.
Russian television says federal troops are
encountering heavy sniper and machine gun fire from
mobile Chechen units that use the city's vast network
of concrete bunkers and bombed out apartment buildings
as shelter.
The advance of federal ground forces makes it more
difficult for Russia to use its superior air and
artillery power for long-range strikes on Grozny.
Nevertheless, military sources say warplanes and
helicopter gunships carried out more than 250 strikes
Monday, many of them on suspected rebel positions and
supply routes in Chechnya's southern mountains.
(SIGNED)
NEB/PFH/JWH/RAE
25-Jan-2000 08:09 AM EDT (25-Jan-2000 1309 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
