January 18, 1996
Web posted at: 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT)
PERVOMAISKAYA, Russia (CNN) -- Russian troops around the Dagestani village of Pervomaiskya came under a surprise attack early Thursday from about a dozen Chechen rebels, Russian news agencies reported.
The Russian Federal Security Service said that at 2:30 a.m. Moscow time (2330 GMT) their troops surrounding the besieged Dagestani village of Pervomaiskaya were attacked from the rear.
The Russian troops are based in the neighboring village of Sovetskoye facing towards the main force of Chechen rebels, who are holding out in Pervomaiskaya.
Russian news agencies were reporting that at least two Russian soldiers were injured in the attack, but that the Chechens had withdrawn or been chased away. It was unclear whether the latest attack was carried out by Chechens who broke out from Pervomaiskaya or by another group who crossed into Dagestan from nearby Chechnya and came up behind the Russians.
Russian forces had continued their artillery and rocket attacks on the main force of rebels occupying the village throughout the night in an effort to prevent breakouts. It was expected a large Russian force would sweep into Pervomaiskaya on foot Thursday to try and "sweep up" the remaining Chechens. Estimates of the size of the rebel force occupying the village have varied from 100 to 250 guerrillas.
Rebels took over the village January 10 after holding thousands hostage in a Kizlyar hospital earlier in the week. After releasing all but about a hundred of the captives, the rebels used the remaining hostages as human shields as they sought to return to their breakaway republic just a few miles from Pervomaiskaya.
Russian military officials said they launched the offensive because rebels had begun shooting the hostages, but Chechens denied the charge.
A Russian military spokesman said Wednesday that all of the hostages were believed to be dead.
Near Sinop, Turkey, hijackers said to be sympathetic with the Chechen cause sailed the Black Sea coast in a heisted ferry boat with more than 200 hostages on board.
The gunmen kept the hostages stowed in the ship's restaurant as Turkish authorities demanded the craft come to port.
The reported eight sympathizers, led by Muhamed Tokcan, took the ferry boat at the Turkish port of Trabzon late Tuesday after Russian troops stormed Chechen rebels holding hostages in Pervomaiskaya.
They have threatened to blow up the boat in the Bosphorus Strait near Istanbul unless Russian soldiers halted their bombardment on the village.
Tokcan said in a telephone call to the Anatolia news agency Wednesday that trucks and fuel depots on board the vessel were rigged with explosives. "We have 50 friends on board," many carrying guns, said Tokcan, who once fought with the Chechen separatists.
"They are not joking; they tied up explosives everywhere," said the ship's captain, Mustafa Tuncay, in a telephone interview with Turkish television.
Tuncay said that Russian and Turkish hostages had been separated "with the Russians on the right and the Turks on the left."
During negotiations Wednesday with Turkish authorities, Tokcan reportedly promised to surrender and free the hostages if he were allowed to sail to Istanbul and hold a news conference. "Give us the go ahead to sail up to Istanbul. Then, this whole thing will be under your control," Tokcan said, according to Turkish TV.
Turkish officials said that they wanted to end the standoff peacefully but did not rule out a rescue operation.
The ferry was trailed by three Turkish patrol boats as it sailed past the port of Sinop, about 350 miles west of Trabzon, Wednesday night.
In a separate incident Tuesday, gunmen seized about 30 hostages in Grozny and took them to an unknown destination. It was not clear if that action had any connection with the Chechen rebels in Pervomaiskaya.
Chechen separatists have been fighting with Russian forces since their three-year independence drive was quashed nearly 13 months ago.
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