Chechnya copter crash kills 18
A Russian military helicopter crashed Friday during a combat mission against separatist guerrillas in the southern republic of Chechnya, killing at least 18 soldiers, authorities said.
Initial reports said the craft was brought down by rebel fire, but officials later said it was more likely that mechanical failure was the cause. Three insurgents were reported killed in the battle, but others apparently escaped into nearby mountains.
The exact death toll remained unclear, with the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, citing an unnamed local security source, reporting Friday evening that 20 severely burned bodies had been found near the crash site.
The number of dead was believed to be the highest for Russian forces in a single incident in Chechnya for at least two years.
The helicopter was carrying special forces soldiers and three crew members, RIA Novosti said.
Over the last few years, and particularly since the death in July of Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, Russian officials and pro-Moscow authorities in Chechnya had said the war against separatists was basically over. But Friday’s incident served as a reminder that there are still periodic eruptions of fierce fighting.
The battle Friday took place about 30 miles south of the Chechen capital, Grozny.
Three helicopters carrying troops were sent to reinforce Russian forces fighting gunmen near the village of Shatoi, RIA Novosti reported.
It quoted an unnamed military source as saying that automatic-rifle fire brought down one of the helicopters as it approached the area.
Zhamlain Khadashev, head of the Shatoi district, told RIA Novosti that “a group of gunmen was encircled in the forest” by ground forces and that three of the rebels were killed.
The incident was the deadliest helicopter crash in Chechnya since the downing of a large chopper Aug. 19, 2002, in which 127 on board were killed, RIA Novosti said.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov questioned reports that the craft that crashed Friday had been shot down.
“According to the information I have received from law enforcement agencies in the Shatoi district and statements from witnesses, the helicopter crashed due to a mechanical fault and did not sustain an attack,” Kadyrov said in comments reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.
“Operations to search for, detain and neutralize militants in mountainous regions in the Chechen republic have been going on endlessly, and this is not news,” Kadyrov said.
“I can assure you that the situation is calm. Aircraft crashes happen not only in Chechnya but also in any region of the country and the world.”
Nikolai Silayev, an analyst at the Caucasus Studies Center of the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations, said the political significance of the crash depended partly on its cause.
“The worst thing is if it turns out that it was brought down with the help of a human-carried air-defense system,” he said. Such weapons have generally not been seen in Chechnya since 2002, he said, and their presence would indicate an unexpectedly high level of organizational and military strength for the rebels.
If the helicopter crashed as a result of a technical failure, then “it is a tragic misfortune” but without much political significance, he said.
Yakov Ryzhak of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.
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