Special operation in Tsotsin-YurtRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus – Large-scale searches and document checks have been going on in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt, east of the capital Grozny, for five days already. Russian military and police structures in cooperation with special forces of the Federal Security Service (FSB) as well as Central Intelligence Department (GRU) sealed off not only Tsotsin-Yurt itself, but also the district centre of Kurchaloy and the village of Geldagan.
Various sources say a total of 500 – 800 military vehicles and other military equipment is being used in the operation. Transport in the village has been banned with people even being not allowed to leave their houses’ yards. Stalls in the Central street have been looted by federal soldiers.
Eyewitnesses, a few women who managed to flee from the village, claim no shooting was heard there except rare sub-machine gun fire and grenade explosions. Not a single piece of information concerning the ongoing operation is given to Tsotsin-Yurt residents. People reportedly have not a slightest idea even about what is going on in neighbouring yards and on the streets.
However, the news leaked that at least five people had been killed in the village by January 2. These were the sons of Duka Zakriyev, Khasan Yachayev, Ramzan Chadayev, the village elder Salamu and local religious personage Musa. All the killed people, whose names remain undisclosed, were up to the age of 25.
Before the “mopping-up” operation started, Tsotsin-Yurt residents had been told to leave their village. A rumour arose that the villagers were going to be deported to Siberia like in 1944, so people bluntly refused to leave their village, preferring to die at home.
Eyewitnesses saw a few severely damaged civilian cars and a KAMAZ lorry outside the encirclement of the village. As it seems, drivers and passengers of these vehicles were probably killed by Russian soldiers when Tsotsin-Yurt was being encircled.
Official reports say more than 30 “guerrillas” have been eliminated in the continuing “mopping-up” operation in Tsotsin-Yurt with 11 of them being killed in last 24 hours. Besides, tens of people have undergone a “filtration” procedure (document check followed by identity check according to a computer database of suspected persons). No reports on detentions have been available so far.
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