Shelling

March 7th 2006 · Prague Watchdog

Russian troops shell outskirts of Kotar-Yurt

By Umalt Chadayev

(my translation)

CHECHNYA - On the morning of March 7, Russian soldiers subjected the environs of one of the villages of Chechnya’s Achkhoy-Martanovsky district (in the republic’s southwest) to a concentrated artillery bombardment.

"At approximately 4 a.m. today, Russian soldiers shelled the outskirts of our village with cannon,” said one of the residents of the village of Kotar-Yurt. “The fire was very concentrated, and windowpanes were knocked out in many of the houses, mainly on the outskirts. The women and children were terribly frightened, and many waited out the bombardment in the cellars because of the fear that shells would land on their houses. Luckily there were no human casualties."

According to some information, Russian soldiers carried out a so-called targeted special operation in this village yesterday. The soldiers arrested the owner of one of the private houses situated in the centre of the village; his wife and grown-up son were also taken away.

At the military commandant’s office of the republic it was stated that the artillery of the federal forces is used exclusively for inflicting strikes "on previously revealed bases and points of accumulation and possible accumulation of guerrillas."



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