ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PERVOMAYSKAYA, RUSSIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Chechen guerrilla war flared outside Russia's borders for the first time Tuesday, with gunmen seizing more than 165 people aboard a Turkish ferry. Their hostage-holding comrades battled Russia's best troops in a burned-out village filled with dead.
Chechen gunmen clung to their positions as Russian tanks and helicopter gunships attacked Pervomayskaya for a second day. Despite salvo after salvo of missiles and artillery fire, they refused to release their hostages.
Tank rounds slammed across frozen fields, and rockets from helicopter gunships exploded in the burning remains of the village as black columns of smoke rose in the winter sky.
At least 100 people were killed and injured in the fighting. It was not known if any hostages were among the dead.
Maj. Gen. Alexander Mikhailov, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, said the rebels had suffered terrible losses. ``We're not counting them in terms of corpses - we're counting them in terms of arms and legs.''
Russian jets rocketed a convoy of guerrilla reinforcements trying to reach Pervomayskaya, leaving about 150 rebels dead, according to Yevgeny Ryabtsev, an Interior Ministry spokesman. There was no independent confirmation of the reported clash 12 miles southeast of the village.
Released hostages said paratroopers had driven the heavily armed Chechens into the southern end of the village, but fierce small-arms fighting continued and the battle could go on for days.
Russian media reported as many as 29 captives have escaped from Pervomayskaya, but local authorities knew of only 18.
Hundreds of miles away, masked gunmen seized a ferry in Trabzon, Turkey, on Tuesday and threatened to kill all the Russians on board, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency said. The gunmen shouted slogans demanding independence for Chechnya, then set sail for an unknown destination, reportedly with 165 people on board. The ferry was scheduled to have gone to the Russian city of Sochi.
A Russian woman who escaped from the vessel told Anatolia that several people had been wounded. Anatolia said one passenger was killed.
Chechens have turned to hostage-taking in their fight for independence from Moscow. In Pervomayskaya, a village in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan on the border with Chechnya, they were believed to be holding between 70 and 120 hostages before the Russian assault began Monday.
The guerrillas were hiding in deep bunkers in the foundations of houses, sniping at the attacking Russians. The roar of automatic weapons fire popped and cracked without halt as darkness fell.
The Interior Ministry in Moscow said 60 rebels were killed, 15 seriously wounded and an unspecified number of others captured. Russian officials did not say if any hostages had died in the fighting.
The rebels, estimated to number between 150 and 250, have fought back fiercely with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. They have destroyed several Russian armored personnel carriers.
Four Russian servicemen were killed and at least 20 wounded. One of the dead was Col. Andrei Krestyaninov, commander of an Interior Ministry rapid-reaction unit, the ministry said.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Two female hostages make their way throughby CNBRussian soldiers Tuesday after being rescued from the rebels. 2. A
Turkish security official on the dock talks with Chechen gunmen
aboard the hijacked ferry Avrasya. color. Graphic: Map by KRT.
color.