Chechens claim killing of 30 Russian troops
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See the article in its original context from May 2000.
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A Chechen commander, speaking under condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the Russian soldiers were killed Wednesday in a battle outside the village of Alleroy, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Chechnya's capital Grozny.
A rebel web site, www.kavkaz.org, reported 34 Russian troops had been killed, along with four rebels, in the fight.
A spokesman at Russia's Interior Ministry said he could not comment on the claim. The Kremlin's spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said no such attack had occurred, the Interfax news agency reported.
The rebels have ambushed several Russian units during the past two months, inflicting heavy casualties. Each time, Russian officials have initially denied any attack.
Both sides also routinely exaggerate the other's losses while playing down their own, and there was no way to check the ambush claim. If true, it would be the deadliest reported attack on Russian troops since rebels ambushed a troop convoy in southern Chechnya in March killing 40 soldiers.
Despite Moscow's claims that the rebels are virtually defeated, Russian forces have been unable to oust the insurgents from Chechnya's southern mountains, and the fighters have made repeated raids.
The Kremlin has indicated in recent weeks that it is looking for a political solution to the conflict, but demands that the rebels surrender their weapons and release all Russian hostages. On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Yastrzhembsky said that Moscow had not received any peace initiatives from rebel Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov.
Maskhadov claimed in an interview with Radio Liberty earlier this week that he had sent a peace proposal to Moscow on Monday.
