rdfs:comment
| - A Russian Interior Ministry force led by Major Valentin Simonov, consisting of 49 men according to the Russian account (41 of them members of the OMON paramilitary police from Perm Krai, mostly from the city of Berezniki), was on its way in one armoured personnel carrier (APC) and two military trucks to conduct a mopping-up operation in the villages of Tsentoroi or Dargo, near Vedeno. Russian airborne forces stationed nearby actually intercepted a rebel communication regarding the preparations for the ambush, but failed to warn the convoy (possibly on purpose, given the widespread hatred of OMON in Russia and especially in regard to the Chechen conflict).
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abstract
| - A Russian Interior Ministry force led by Major Valentin Simonov, consisting of 49 men according to the Russian account (41 of them members of the OMON paramilitary police from Perm Krai, mostly from the city of Berezniki), was on its way in one armoured personnel carrier (APC) and two military trucks to conduct a mopping-up operation in the villages of Tsentoroi or Dargo, near Vedeno. Russian airborne forces stationed nearby actually intercepted a rebel communication regarding the preparations for the ambush, but failed to warn the convoy (possibly on purpose, given the widespread hatred of OMON in Russia and especially in regard to the Chechen conflict). At 8 am, the column stopped after one of the trucks ran out of fuel. The Russian commander decided to check a bombed-out house nearby and accidentally discovered a small group of rebel fighters hiding there; he was the first to be killed, shot dead as he entered the door. Once the firing started, more rebels, who were hiding in the undergrowth and trees, encircled the column, blowing up the truck with the unit's grenade launcher and ammunition, before pinning down the rest of the convoy in a hail of gunfire from all sides with grenade launchers, machine guns, and sniper rifles. Some of the Russians hid in the nearby forest. Rocket strafing attacks by Russian attack helicopters, apparently unaware that some of their own men were hiding in the forest, failed to dislodge the guerrillas. A second Perm OMON convoy, including two APCs and 107 troops, was then sent to the rescue from the headquarters of the Interior Ministry in Vedeno, but was itself attacked on Height 817, just from the ambush site. At least three or six men in the second convoy were killed and 15 or 16 wounded before the relief mission was called off. Radio contact with the trapped unit was lost at 2:30 pm. When the shooting ceased, most of the men in the first column were dead or dying. Some injured Russians killed themselves with their own grenades. Nine to eleven were captured, while six managed to reach friendly lines.
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