PARATROOPERS SUFFER CASUALTIES IN CHECHNYA








MOSCOW, MARCH 1, 2001. /FROM RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER KONOVALOV/ -- Last week five Russia's paratroopers were killed and 16 wounded in Chechnya, said commander of Russia's Airborne Force Colonel General Georgy Shpak. 


	In all, Russia's paratroopers had 268 people killed and 631 wounded over the whole anti-terror operation in the North Caucasus starting with the hostilities in Daghestan /a North Caucasus republic within the Russian Federation which Chechen separatists attempted to capture in August 1999-ed./ on August 2, 1999. 


	The military commander noted that the Airborne troops suffered latest losses during the operation blocking several regions in the mountainous part of Chechnya, that recently came to a close. The operation uncovered and destroyed numerous caches of arms and ammunition.


	In his estimate of the operative situation in Chechnya, Georgy Shpak qualified it as generally stable with some tension in separate areas. The situation in the Argun settlement is the worst one. A battalion of the 31st Airborne Brigade is operating there now in a bid to introduce order.


	The military expect that with the advent of spring when the mountains of Chechnya become covered with greenery, bandit formations will step up activities, and adequate measures will be taken to prevent them.


	According to the Airborne Forces' intelligence, active members of illegal bandit formations number up to 1,500. The general did not give the number of foreign mercenaries operating in the republic. "Such data are never made public," stressed Georgy Shpak.