NCMD Military Prosecutor's Office investigates treachery of "Sever" battalion fighters

The Military Prosecutor's Office of the North-Caucasian Military District (NCMD) will check the media data that in February 2010 in the course of a special operation in Chechnya military servicemen of battalion "Sever" (North) opened fire on special fighters of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who came from the city of Ufa.

On February 4 this year, in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya a joint special operation was conducted by special units of the MIA's Internal Troops and fighters of the special Chechen battalion "Sever" (North), aimed to block rebels. According to journalists of the "Moskovskiy Komsomolets" (MK), during the fight, where five special agents were lost, the "Sever" fighters not only disclosed the disposition of power agents to militants, but also opened "friend" fire.

According to a source in power structures of the NCMD, the District Military Prosecutor's Office was instructed to promptly check the information about the special operation, conducted this winter in Chechnya, which appeared in Russian masses media, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

The MK writes that one of the survivors of that fight told that before the special operation a quarrel burst out between special fighters and servicemen of the "Sever" battalion, and one of the fighters was shot dead by his "Sever" counterpart. Special fighters, having accused the prosecutor's office of passiveness, did not exclude their own way of settling matters with their Chechen colleagues.

In his turn, Alvi Karimov, press secretary of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, in turn, condemned the information that military men from "Sever" had some ties with Chechen militants. According to his version, such publications "are aimed to blacken the battalion." He announced it on air of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio.