16:09, 20 July 2005

Car blast leaves 14 dead

The Chechen Interior Ministry's UAZ car was blown up on 19 July in Znamenskoye, Chechnya's Nadterechny district. According to recent reports, 14 people died in the terror attack, including 3 civilians. The number of the injured has reached 34.

An officer from the reconnaissance corps of the Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus believes several factors made for the tragedy in Znamenskoyev. "The first factor is the reduced combat readiness of interior troops caused by the fact that these districts (Nadterechny, Shelkovskaya, and Naursky districts – editor's note) are considered quiet and service seems to be honey here. The second one is giving up reconnaissance in settlements, which is a direct fault of the district military commandant. And the third factor is the general negligence of servicemen and law enforcers, who seem to fancy the war is over. Not to conduct reconnaissance in a settlement is a crime," the officer said to the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

Author: Alexander Grigoriev, CK correspondent