2010 Tsentoroy Attack

Part of North Caucasus Insurgency

Date	29 August 2010
Location	Tsentoroy, Chechnya
Result	Attackers repelled, but symbolic show of force by separatist fighters

Belligerents

Kadyrovtsy

Pro-Moscow Chechen Law Enforcement

Vilayat Nokhchicho

Commanders and leaders

Ramzan Kadyrov

Aslambek Vadalov

Muhannad

Zaurbek Avdorkhanov

Emir Makhran

Emir Abdurakhman

Emir Ayub

Strength

600

15-30
or
60

Casualties and losses

6 killed, 17 wounded
or
15 killed

12 killed
or
8 killed

Civilians
7 wounded

The 2010 Tsentoroy Attack was an insurgent operation carried out on the morning of 29 August 2010 by Chechen rebels in Tsentoroy (also known as Khosi-Yurt), Chechnya, the home village and stronghold of pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. The assault - which represented the largest and most audacious attack launched in the republic for over a year - is considered to have "shattered" the image of Kadyrov's unshakeable rule in Chechnya, as it was the first time in six years that his seemingly impregnable village had come under attack.

According to the rebel website Kavkaz Center, three detachments totaling up to 60 militants (and featuring ten suicide bombers) led by Emirs Zaurbek, Makhran, and Abdurakhman - commanders directly subordinate to Aslambek Vadalov - entered the village around 4:30 a.m. local time. The rebels overran two checkpoints and destroyed an armored personnel carrier before setting fire to ten of the homes of Kadyrov’s closest associates; they also seized ammunition and communications equipment. The militants were said to have employed the tactics of Afghanistan's Taliban, with groups of guerrillas attacking an object and inflicting as much damage as possible with no intention of retreating; some reports claimed that the militants “practically captured” the village for several hours and that the government had to revert to using artillery and helicopters to drive them out. During the fighting the militants managed to send an SMS message to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s North Caucasus service at 6:30 a.m. saying, “Tsentoroy is burning,” and television footage the following day showed a burnt-out car just 150 meters from the entrance to Kadyrov’s fortress-like residence, exhibiting just how deeply the brazen attack had penetrated the village.

The version of events presented by Kadyrov was that his security forces had advance notice of the operation, permitted the fighters to enter the village and disperse, and then cornered them, killing 12 "devils." He also added that the only militants who managed to escape “were filming for a report to their sponsors, but we are confident they will be found.”. Russian officials stated that all twelve slain militants were wearing explosive vests and that seven of those killed had detonated the vests and were thus unidentifiable; rebel sources in the village disputed this, citing unnamed residents of Tsentoroy who claimed that at least some of the dead identified as attackers were actually young men held in Kadyrov’s notorious private prison that were executed on his orders so as to increase the body count. Militant sources would add that the reason they were said to be “unidentifiable” was because it would have been clear that those dead were indeed long-held prisoners rather than members of the insurgent assault team, an allegation that one analyst stated was “entirely in keeping with what is known of [Kadyrov's] treatment of anyone suspected of abetting, or even sympathizing with the insurgency."

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Wikipedia