Chechnya Weekly from the Jamestown Foundation

Chechnya Weekly from the Jamestown FoundationChechen President Ramzan Kadyrov vowed on August 3 that the republic’s rebels would be completely destroyed by the end of the year. “I responsibly declare that in the time remaining before the end of the year the problem of the remnants of the illegal armed formations will be fully resolved,” Interfax quoted him as saying at the opening of a military training center in his native town of Tsentoroi. “Not a single militant, or, as we call them, shaitan, will remain in Chechnya.” In what may have been a response, a group of rebels attacked the village of Tsa-Vedeno during the night of August 4-5, killing three people, including a two-year old boy, and burning three homes belonging to policemen. Kommersant, on August 6, quoted Dmitry Nikiforov, the acting head of the of the press center of the operational headquarters in Chechnya, as saying that approximately 10 rebels were involved in the attack and that they split into two groups – one of which headed for the homes of police and security officers in the village while the other setup a checkpoint at the village’s entrance. According to the newspaper, the attackers set up the checkpoint late at night when few people were driving in their cars, apparently hoping to stop law-enforcement or military personnel. However, the first vehicle they stopped was a Mercedes being driven by Zelimkhan Dzhabirov, the head of the legal department of a Grozny construction firm, and had two passengers – Nalchik resident Akhmed Eshiev and his two-year-old nephew, Artur, who were traveling to visit relatives in the area.