Gimry fighting took place between January 2 – January 5, 2006, near the village of
Gimry in
Daghestan.
The battle
The fighting happened on a mountain between some 3,000
Russian troops, including 1,500
special forces
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
on one side and a group of estimated up to eight armed rebels (or 30 according to the
Kavkaz Center version). The government forces were led by the Dagestani
Interior Minister
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
Adilgerei Magomedtagirov (the Ministry said the militant group included suspects in a recent
assassination attempt
This is a list of survivors of assassination attempts, listed chronologically. It does ''not'' include those who were heads of state or government at the time of the assassination attempt. See List of heads of state and government who survived as ...
on the Deputy Interior Minister that left his son dead).
Despite heavy
artillery and
aerial bombardment all the fighters managed to escape the
encirclement back to the village, leaving behind only an abandoned
dugout. At least three
OMON and
Spetznaz
Spetsnaz are special forces in numerous post-Soviet states. (The term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or .)
Historically, the term ''spetsnaz'' referred to the So ...
servicemen died and more than 10 were wounded in a three-day battle, some of them possibly by
friendly fire. According to the separatist website, more than 50 Russian troops were "eliminated".
The government's plans to
pacify the village of Gimry were initially dropped because of the village's symbolical importance as the historical birthplace of
Imam Shamil. The large-scale cleansing operation in the village was however carried out in the winter of 2007-2008.
References
External links
GIMRI RE-EMERGES AS ANTI-RUSSIAN STRONGHOLD IN DAGESTAN The Jamestown Foundation, January 12, 2006
Tough lessons in defiant Dagestan BBC News, 19 June 2006
{{coord missing, Dagestan
2006 in Russia
Battles of the Second Chechen War
Battles involving Chechnya
Caucasian Front (militant group)
History of Dagestan
January 2006 events in Europe
Battles in 2006