Chechen Military HQ to Be Relocated
Chechen rebels have decided to pull their military headquarters out of Grozny but will keep fighters in the city, an aide to Chechen leader Dzhokar M. Dudayev said Wednesday.
“A decision was taken to move the headquarters of the armed forces outside Grozny,” Movladi Udugov, head of Chechnya’s information service, told reporters in the rebel-held town of Shali, southeast of the capital.
“Special assault groups will remain in the city. They have the task of waging military activities there,” he added.
Much of Grozny has been destroyed in almost nine weeks of Russian bombing and shelling and fierce street fighting. Officials at the Russian regional military headquarters in Mozdok said Monday that they had broken the back of rebel resistance in Grozny and were clearing it of the remaining Chechen fighters.
But Russian claims of victory appeared over-optimistic. Truckloads of Chechen fighters were still arriving from the eastern stronghold of Gudermes.
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