<< previous  |  index  |  next>>

The Attack

“It was such a sunny day, we all went out thinking they would let us out, we all somehow relaxed. Children were on the street, women... Then such a screaming started...” - a woman from Grozny.²²

Despite assurances from the Russian commander at the border that those returning to Grozny would be safe, the convoy was attacked at around 12:30 p.m. According to eyewitnesses, two or three planes circled over the road close to the village of Shaami Yurt, approximately ten miles from the border, andsometime between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. launched several air-to-surface rockets at the convoy. No warning was given. The planes, which several eyewitnesses said were flying at low altitude, made at least two attack runs over the convoy. This virtually eliminates the possibility that the attack was carried out in error. According to witnesses the attack lasted about twenty-five minutes, during which time the planes shot multiple rockets at several different locations along a stretch of the road several miles long. Eyewitnesses said that four rockets landed near a bridge over the Fortanga river, about two kilometers from the village of Shaami Yurt. Several more rockets hit a bus at the edge of the village. Several eyewitnesses maintained that when the planes ran out of rockets, they raked the Baku-Rostov highway with machine gun fire.

People who visited the site of the attack the following day reported seeing numerous large as well as many smaller holes in the road. Trucks, at least one bus, and numerous passenger cars and vans were hit in the attack. Dozens of civilians were killed--burned beyond recognition or ripped to pieces by shrapnel.

The Russian government maintains that its planes came under attack from the convoy and, in response, targeted and destroyed several trucks with Chechen rebel fighters. In a press release, the Russian air force stated:

...at 14:00 p.m., a convoy of trucks with rebels and weapons drove along the road Nazran-Grozny in the direction of Grozny. A Su-25 plane which flew over the convoy was shot at from an automatic weapon, and another Su-25 was called to the place of the incident. The planes carried out rocket attacks at the convoy with an interval of five minutes, as a result of which two truck with rebels were destroyed.²³

Mikhail Margelov, head of the official Russian Information Center, told the news agency Interfax that “the machine gun-equipped trucks which Russian planes targeted were heading for the capital, Grozny, and could not have been carrying refugees, who, as is known, are trying to flee danger areas.”²⁴ Yet, at the time of the attack, as explained above, those attempting to flee had to turn around and head back toward Grozny.