VLADIKAVKAZ - Chechen prosecutors opened a criminal case Thursday against a Russian soldier accused of erroneously shelling a town in southern Chechnya, killing two girls and their mother and seriously injuring nine other people. Chechnya's Moscow-appointed leader vowed that those who caused deaths in Chechnya would not escape punishment.
Citing Chechen prosecutor Nikolai Kostyuchenko, the Interfax news agency said that the soldier in the Russian Defense Ministry's 70th regiment had intended the artillery barrage for a suspected Chechen rebel base. The soldier, who was not identified, faces charges of negligence.
The Russian military has not publicly taken responsibility for the deaths. The Defense Ministry refused to comment on the criminal case Thursday. However, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the ministry had put all the servicemen responsible for the shelling into custody.
Tensions have been rising steadily between the military and Chechnya's civilian government, which accuses the armed forces of failing to restore order in the troubled region and of abusing civilians. Top Chechen administrator Akhmad Kadyrov has been pressing for more responsibility to be given to native Chechen policemen, rather than servicemen and law enforcement officials shipped in from elsewhere in Russia.
Kadyrov declared a three-day mourning period for slain civilians, including the two young sisters killed in the shelling Tuesday in the southern town of Shali, and their mother, who died of her injuries Thursday.
"I will fight to the end for the rule and supremacy of the law," Kadyrov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency. "I assure all citizens of our republic that those who are guilty of the deaths of peaceful civilians will be subjected to the most severe and inevitable punishment, no matter what uniform they wear and under what slogans they conceal themselves."
Three more civilians were seriously injured late Wednesday when federal forces shelled the village of Kharkovskoye, in the Shelkovskaya region northwest of the capital Grozny, ITAR-Tass reported Thursday. A shell exploded in the courtyard of a home, injuring three members of a family, it said.
Meanwhile, three Russian security service officers were killed and three wounded Wednesday in a clash with rebels in the eastern Nozhai-Yurt region, the Chechen administration official said. Seven Russian servicemen were killed and 12 were wounded in rebel attacks across Chechnya over the past 24 hours, while one Chechen policeman was shot and killed and two others wounded in street attacks in two Chechen towns. /The Associated Press/
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