Shatoy ambush

The Shatoy ambush (known in Russia as the Battle of Yaryshmardy) was an April 16, 1996, attack by forces of the Arab-born commander Ibn al-Khattab near the town of Shatoy in the southern mountains of Chechnya, during the First Chechen War.

The Shatoy ambush
Part of First Chechen War
DateApril 16, 1996
Location
Yaryshmardy, Chechnya
Result Decisive Chechen victory
Belligerents
Russia Chechnya
Foreign fighters
Commanders and leaders
Pyotr Terzovets † Ibn al-Khattab
Ruslan Gelayev
Strength

245th Motor Rifle Regiment

  • 2nd Battalion
 43
Casualties and losses
76 killed[1] unknown

Battle

The attack wrecked the column of the Russian 2nd Battalion from the 245th Motor Rifle Regiment (MRR) and killed 53 servicemen and injured 52, according to the official Russian figures.[2] The first reports by the officials spoke of only 26 killed and 51 wounded.[3] According to the other sources, more than 70[4][5][6] to almost 100[7][8][9][10] to even 223[11] soldiers of the 245th MRR died in the ambush. A few civilians who were traveling with the convoy were also reportedly killed.[12]

According to the second-hand account by the Polish volunteer Mirosław Kuleba (aka Władysław Wilk/Mehmed Borz), Khattab's detachment of 43 men chose a "perfect ambush spot" with a ravine and a stream on one side and a forested slope on the other side of a serpentine mountain road: the rebels first let the Russian recon squad through and then detonated an IED under the leading tank; simultaneously, a volley of RPGs hit the unit's command vehicle, killing the Russian commander instantly, and the APC at the end the column - after this, the Chechens opened fire on the rest of the Russian unit. Kuleba wrote that the three-hour attack burned 27 armoured vehicles and trucks in the convoy and just 12 out of 199 Russian soldiers survived "the slaughter", while the rebel losses were only three killed and six wounded.[13]

According to the Russian book Chechenskiy Kapkan, up to 100 fighters ambushed the column of 30 Russian armoured vehicles, almost 100 soldiers were killed and "only eight escaped with their lives".[10].

Aftermath

A video of the ambush and its aftermath, widely distributed and celebrated in Chechnya, featured Khattab "walking triumphantly down a line of blackened Russian corpses",[14] and gained him early fame in Chechnya and great notoriety in Russia.[15] The images of carnage also caused new calls for Russia's defence minister Pavel Grachev to resign,[8] while Russia suspended its limited troop withdrawal.

References
  1. Измайлов, Вячеслав Без вести погибшие // Новая газета. — № 66. — 8 сентября 2003 г.
  2. Arab-born Chechen leader 'killed', The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 2002
  3. Chechen rebels kill 26 Russian soldiers in ambush, Interfax, 96 04 17
  4. KVASHNIN CALLS REPORTS THAT KHATTAB WAS WOUNDED "RUMORS." Archived 2006-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, The Jamestown Foundation, December 14, 2001
  5. Russia After Communism by Rick Fawn, Stephen White, 2002
  6. Realignments in Russian Foreign Policy by Rick Fawn, 2003
  7. Khatab: Islamic revolutionary, BBC News, 30 September 1999
  8. KHATTAB KILLED, CLAIMS AN UNNAMED FSB OFFICIAL. Archived 2006-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, The Jamestown Foundation, April 12, 2002
  9. Portrait of 2 Warlords, The Moscow Times, September 18, 1999
  10. CHECHNYA: TWO FEDERAL INTERVENTIONS Archived 2015-09-04 at the Wayback Machine, Conflict Studies Research Centre, January 2000
  11. The Legacy of the Arab-Afghans: A Case Study ("estimates from Moscow")
  12. Did NSA Help Russia Target Dudayev? Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, CovertAction Quarterly, No. 61
  13. (in Polish) Czeczeński Specnaz, Komandos, June 1997
  14. Obituary: Khattab, The Independent, May 1, 2002
  15. The Russo-Chechen War: A Threat to Stability in the Middle East and Eurasia? Archived 2008-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, Middle East Policy Council, March 2001
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