Shatoy ambush

Shatoy ambush
Part of First Chechen War
Date16 April 1996
Location
Result Successful Ambush - Chechen victory
Belligerents
Russia Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Commanders and leaders
Pyotr Terzovets  Ruslan Gelayev
Ibn al-Khattab
Units involved

245th Motor Rifle Company

  • 2nd Battalion
Detachment led by Gelayev & Khattab
Strength
100-200+ troops 43 Chechen Fighters
Casualties and losses

100-187+ killed [1][2][3]
9 Soldiers Escaped[2]

27/30-50 military vehicles destroyed[4]
3 killed, 6 wounded

The Shatoy ambush (known in Russia as the Battle of Yarysh-mardy) was a significant event during the First Chechen War. It occurred near the town of Shatoy, located in the southern mountains of Chechnya. Chechen insurgents under the leadership of their Arab-born commander, Ibn al-Khattab, would launch an attack on a large Russian Armed Forces army convoy resulting in a three hour long battle.

The Chechen rebels would succeed in totally destroying nearly all the vehicles within the convoy and inflicting extreme severe losses on Russian troops.[5] The battle signified a major shift in Chechen defensive tactics and marked one of the most debilitating defeats suffered by the Russian military during the war.[6]

  1. ^ Измайлов, Вячеслав Без вести погибшие Archived 2013-11-13 at the Wayback Machine // Новая газета. — № 66. — 8 сентября 2003 г.
  2. ^ a b Arab-born Chechen leader 'killed', The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 2002
  3. ^ Chechen rebels kill 26 Russian soldiers in ambush Archived 2005-05-30 at the Wayback Machine, Interfax, 96 04 17
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.globalterroralert.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Huérou, Anne Le; Merlin, Aude; Regamey, Amandine; Sieca-Kozlowski, Elisabeth (2014-09-15). Chechnya at War and Beyond. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-75616-3.
  6. ^ Gammer, Moshe (2007-10-22). Ethno-Nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus: Post-Soviet Disorder. Routledge. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-134-09853-8.