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Some 90 armed groups remain active in Chechnya - commander

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Some 70-90 illegal armed groups consisting of up to 800 militants are still active on the territory of Russia's troubled North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, a senior military commander said Tuesday.
MOSCOW REGION, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Some 70-90 illegal armed groups consisting of up to 800 militants are still active on the territory of Russia's troubled North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, a senior military commander said Tuesday.

Although the active phase of the North Caucasus antiterrorism campaign officially ended in 2001, periodic bombings and clashes between gunmen and federal troops still disrupt Chechnya and nearby regions, including Daghestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachayevo-Circassia.

Commander-in-Chief of the Interior Ministry Troops Colonel-General Nikolai Rogozhkin said that "today some 70-90 armed groups, consisting of 600-800 militants, are still operating on the territory of Chechnya."

The figures are different from those announced last week by Colonel-General Arkady Yedelev, a Russian deputy interior minister, who said that 37 illegal armed groups, consisting of about 450 militants, were active in Chechnya.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov promised last Monday that all illegal armed groups in his republic will be eliminated within two months.

Kadyrov, elected Chechen president earlier this year, said that "the counterterrorism operation in the region has been completed and today we are fighting criminal [not terrorist] elements in the Republic of Chechnya."

Rogozhkin said that as the situation in Chechnya stabilizes, the number of Interior Ministry troops in the republic, currently totaling 22,000, will gradually drop.

He added that Russian interior troops also plan to hold a joint antiterrorism exercise with Chinese police in the North Caucasus in the fall this year.

He said the exercise is intended to focus on drilling for joint actions aimed at eliminating armed groups in mountainous areas.

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