November 4, 2002	Monday	Sha’aban 28,1423

MOSCOW, Nov 3: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday Russian forces had launched broad new military action in Chechnya to crush attempts by separatist guerrillas to stage “new acts of terror”.

“From today the group of forces in Chechnya have launched broad-scale, tough and targeted special operations in all Chechnya’s regions,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

“In the past few days we have received more and more information that in the territory of Chechnya, and not only there, guerrilla fighters are preparing to carry out new acts of terror,” he said.

Ivanov was speaking eight days after special forces brought a bloody end to a mass hostage seizure by Chechen rebels in a Moscow theatre.

Itar-Tass news agency, in its version of Ivanov’s remarks made to journalists in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, quoted him as saying the operations were aimed at “nipping the threat in the bud”.

Agencies quoted Ivanov as saying that Russia had suspended previous plans to reduce its military presence in the rebel North Caucasus province.

His remarks appeared to foreshadow a military clampdown in the territory, where Russian forces have battled separatist guerrillas for most of the past eight years.

There was no immediate word from the region of any new crackdown under way. Russian authorities have imposed tough restrictions on reporting from Chechnya and access there by Russian and foreign correspondents is under strong Kremlin control.

COPTER SHOT DOWN: Rebels shot down a Russian helicopter on Sunday, killing all nine soldiers on board, officials said.

The MI-8 helicopter was struck by a ground-to-air missile fired from a building near Grozny, said Boris Podoprigora, deputy commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Military helicopters are favourite targets of Chechen rebels, who brought down another chopper last Tuesday.

Chechen rebels last August shot down a military transport helicopter killing 121 people.

MORE ATTACKS: Exile Chechen figure Ahmed Zakayev, now in detention in Copenhagen, denied that his group had anything to do with the Moscow hostage drama, but warned that further such acts cannot be ruled out, the German weekly magazine Focus reported.

In an interview due to appear on Monday, Zakayev also denied speculation that the Chechens who seized hostages in a Moscow theatre were under the influence of Al Qaeda or any other foreign Islamic group.

“I do not believe that they were guided by any kind of international powers. They were desperate people who wanted to sacrifice themselves,” he said of the hostage-takers.

“This group organised itself and decided independently. We have no control over such people,” he said. “So the situation can get out of control at any moment. Further such actions cannot be ruled out.”

—Reuters/AFP/dpa