Soviet Special Operations & Urban Assault

A bit of history on Soviet Special Operations and City Fighting:

On June 14, 1995, Chechnyan Muslim terrorist leader Shamil Basaev entered Gronzy with about 200 terrorists. The muslims first tried, and failed, to seize a police station. They were more successful in capturing two bank buildings and the city administrative center. Basaev’s forces positioned machine guns on the roofs of the captured buildings and then seized the local hospital. There, they took hostages and booby trapped the area. The rebels promised that the hostages would be released if the Russians agreed to cease hostilities in Chechnya and withdraw their forces from the region. If the Russians refused or made any attempt to resolve the situation by force, the hostages would die.On June 17, as negotiations continued, Russian MVD and Spetsnaz forces attempted to recapture the hospital. Spetsnaz troops fired at the front windows of the hospital to create a diversion while elite Alpha group forces advanced unseen from another direction. While the Russians succeeded in temporarily capturing part of the first floor, freeing some hostages and eliminating some enemy snipers and machine gun crews, the rest of the hospital remained under Basaev’s control. Two hours later they tried again, with similar results. After this second failure, Russian negotiators stated that theRussian troops were acting independently of central government control. This ended efforts to recapture the hospital and negotiations concluded on June 19. Basaev’s forces may not have gotten what they initially demanded, but they were able to return to Chechnya unimpeded, leaving behind 150 dead civilians.

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