Battle of Komsomolskoye

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Siege of Komsomolskoye


caption=
partof=Second Chechen War
place=Komsomolskoye, Chechnya
date=March 6 2000, to ~March 24 2000
result=Russian strategic victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Gennady Troshev
Alexander Baranov
Mikhail Revenko †
Said-Magomed Kakiyev
commander2=Ruslan Gelayev
strength1=Several thousand
strength2=1,000-1,500
casualties1=Officially more than 350 casualties.
casualties2=800 killed according to the Russian government. [ [http://www.thailand.mid.ru/chech3.html CHECHNYA: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS] ]
casualties3=A number of civilian casualties (possibly up to 100 killed).
campaign=

Battle of Komsomolskoye was a March 2000 large-scale battle between the Russian forces and the rebels in Chechnya in Komsomolskoye (Saadi-Kotar), native village of the Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev, following the February 2000 evacuation of the capital Grozny after the fall of the city. In the resulting battle the Chechen forces suffered extremely heavy losses in the biggest Chechen setback of the war, as the a column of exhausted and hungry rebels was surrounded in the village and subjected to the heavy shelling and bombing (including from the thermobaric weapons).

The outcome of the siege was considered a nearly-total disaster for the rebels, of which an estimated 500 to 1,000 were killed and only a part managed to escape. Komsomolskoye was completely destroyed by the especially heavy bombardment. As of 2004, most former residents lived outside the village, especially in the Urus-Martanovsky District, waiting for compensations for their destroyed houses. [http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000005-000004-000038&lang=1 Remembering Komsomolskoye] ]

The battle

The rebels seized the village (pop. 5,000, a suburb of Grozny) on March 4, 2000, as they tried to break through the cordon set up by Russia around the Argun gorge. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/667984.stm Chechen rebels besieged] ] Gelayev was betrayed by Arbi Barayev, who promised him to evacuate his wounded by buses which were not waiting there, sparking a deadly feud later. Reportedly, Barayev and his men bribed their way out of Komsomolskoye while leaving Gelayev and his people to their fate. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=23&issue_id=1838&article_id=17482 MASKHADOV ASSOCIATE REPORTEDLY KILLED IN SHOOT-OUT WITH POLICE.] ]

At first, Russia said only 25-30 fighters were in the village, asserting that guerrillas could no longer field large units, but later admitted they faced a group of 1,000 to 1,500 rebels. More than 2,000 civilians were trapped in the war zone, many in the no man's land for three days. [ [http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/texts/2004chech.shtml Hostage taking and repressive actions against relatives of alleged combatants and terrorists] ] Up to 100 civilians, mainly elderly, disabled, or wounded, were left trapped in the village itself throughout the bombardment; these civilians may well have been killed in the ferocious fighting that ensued. [ [http://hrw.org/press/2000/03/chech0324.htm Thousands Trapped by Russian Forces in Live-Fire Zone] ] [ [http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/chechnya/Disapfin-04.htm TORTURE AND SUMMARY EXECUTION] ]

On March 8 2000, after the four days of shelling and bombardment, the battle for Komsomolskoye began and dozens of Russian T-72 tanks accompanied by infantry were sent in the village, [ [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/03/02/world/main167322.shtml 24 Russian Tanks In Chechen Town] ] firing at the Chechen-held buildings at the point blank range. That same day, General Gennady Troshev, the acting commander of the federal forces in Chechnya, said that Gelayev's forces would be completely destroyed by the next day (March 9). [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=23&issue_id=1743&article_id=16984 HEAVY FIGHTING CONTINUES IN KOMSOMOLSKOE.] ]

Gelayev and parts of his force managed to break out of the encirclement, and had to leave many of his men behind, including all the severely wounded. Up to 500 rebels were thought to successfully retreated from the village to regroup in nearby forest; only a handful of these who remained in the village survived the battle or the captivity. By March 10 2000, the Russians said they were still confronting determined resistance from between 300 to 700 Chechens. On March 15, 2000, the deputy commander of the Western group of Interior Ministry forces, Colonel Mikhail Revenko, was hit by a Chechen rocket-propelled grenade and killed.

On March 17, 2000, a small group of Chechen snipers have driven back Russian forces sent in to "mop up" the now-flattened village, and the Russians again reverted to the heavy artillery punding. BBC noted Russian high command said the rebels "will be definitively destroyed today", a pledge the local commanders made a week before. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/679705.stm Chechens put up fight] ] On March 20 2000, the Russians claimed 46 guerrillas, including a field commander, were killed during the last reported break out of the village. By this time, according to the official figures, more than 50 Russian soldiers were killed and over 300 wounded.

On March 21 2000, Russian troops said they have raised their flag over what is left of a the village, and 76 armed fighters surrendered, leaving some 150 rebels thought to remain holed up with no escape route. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/685388.stm Russian flag 'flies in key village'] ] Almost all of the the prisoners, who were promised an amnesty, disappeared at the hands of the Russian Ministry of Justice troops. On March 24 2000, the Russian defence minister, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, claimed the troops "cleared" the village, and that only 20 to 50 rebels were still fighting in the ruins. [ [http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw953882100975I225 Russian troops clear Chechnya village] ]

ee also

*Komsomolskoye massacre

References

External links

* [http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/560896.html War in Chechnya: a Chechen militiaman tells his story] Memorial 23/4/2003
* [http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000005-000004-000158&lang=1 The bloodiest battle of the second Chechen war] National Endowment for Democracy March 5th 2008