Deadly Strike on Chechen Civilians Confirmed

MOSCOW â€”  The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Saturday that Russian warplanes struck a convoy of civilians in the separatist republic of Chechnya on Friday, killing 25 people and injuring 70.

In a statement from Geneva, the agency said that the convoy included vehicles from the Chechen branch of the Russian Red Cross and that the five vehicles in the convoy were clearly marked with a Red Cross emblem. The agency said the vehicles were returning from the Chechen-Ingush border, which had been closed by Russia.

The statement is the first confirmation of an attack on civilians, which Russia has denied since the first reports Friday. The aid agency, citing confirmation from its local workers, said a rocket fired from a Russian warplane hit a truck, killing two Red Cross workers and seriously injuring a third. Nearby vehicles also came under fire, the agency said. Besides the Red Cross workers, 23 other people were killed and 69 were wounded.

There were conflicting accounts about the attack. A Chechen official, Ramsan Abuyev, told the Reuters news agency that about 40 refugees were killed and 100 others hurt when their convoy came under fire near the village of Shami-Yurt, west of Grozny, the Chechen capital.

On Friday and again Saturday, the Russian military denied attacking a civilian convoy. The Russian air force press service said warplanes were targeting trucks carrying Chechen fighters and weapons.

Fighting continued Saturday around Grozny and Chechnya’s second-largest city, Gudermes.

Russian SU-24 and SU-25 jet fighters continued to pound Grozny, flying 50 sorties in the past day, Russian military officials said. They claimed to have bombed an electronics plant, and there were reports of a large explosion from the bombing of the Grozny oil refinery.