CHECHNYA
Through a devastated landscape, at the side of Commandant Khattab and Shivarni Basayev for three weeks.
Vedeno, in the Caucasian foothills of the mountainous southern third of the country, is the fief of the Wahhabi Muslims of Chechnya. It is one of the principal targets of Russian bombing planes and artillery. Vedeno with Grozny is the only left pocket of resistance in Chechnya
The warrior leader Shamil Baseyev and his family come from here while the Commandant Amir Khattab who had lost his his own hand fighting in Afghanistan is a Saudi who identifies himself only as "a soldier of international Islam."
This village launched the famous raids on Dagestan, to serve as a pretext for Putin to trigger the second Chechen war.
December 1999 - january 2000
December 18th 1999.
Commandant Hassan (chief of Basayev's security personnel) with Commandant Sayed, south of Shali, which has been encircled by the Russians. Infiltrating the Russian lines, the Chechens mean to destroy a Russian tank.
December 18th 1999.
Commandant Hassan (chief of Basayev's security personnel) with Commandant Sayed, south of Shali, which has been encircled by the Russians. Infiltrating the Russian lines, the Chechens mean to destroy a Russian tank
December 13th 1999.
Amir Khattab (on a mobile telephone), wearing the typical astrakhan hat of the region; Commandant Sayed and Shirvani Baseyev, brother of Shamil, checking their mobile phones.
December 18th 1999.
Commandant Sayed, south of Shali, which has been encircled by the Russians. Infiltrating the Russian lines, the Chechens mean to destroy a Russian tank.
December 19th 1999.
A school dating from the Soviet era and destroyed by an Russian air raid.
December 19th 1999.
Farmhouses ruined in a Russian aerial attack.
December 14th 1999.
Funeral of the brother of Commandant Sayed, killed in action in the Shali region a few days earlier.
The elders of the village, including the father of Shamil Basayev (far right), receive the people's condolences.
December 23th 1999.
A five-year-old boy named Aminat, wounded in the head during an aerial bombardment on his family's farm, is tended by nurses in a mosque converted into a hospital
December 14th 1999.
Funeral of the brother of Commandant Sayed, killed in action in the Shali region a few days earlier.
December 24th 1999.
A school converted into a hospital, the victims of an air attack on a bus that had left 15 dead, 40 injured.
December 22th 1999.
The wake for a 55-year-old woman killed in a bombardment.
December 23th 1999.
A five-year-old boy named Aminat, wounded in the head during an aerial bombardment on his family's farm, rests at his home.
December 19th 1999.
Farmhouses ruined in a Russian aerial attack.
December 26th 1999.
A Chechen woman and her child in a bus headed for Dagestan.
December 30th 1999.
The last passageway between Chechnya and Georgia, leading through the Argun gorges, having been cut by Russian parachute troops 18 December 1999, the only remaining route is nothing but pathways through the mountains that must be crossed on foot.
December 31th 1999.
The last passageway between Chechnya and Georgia, leading through the Argun gorges, having been cut by Russian parachute troops 18 December 1999, the only remaining route is nothing but pathways through the mountains that must be crossed on foot.
This mountain pass is at an altitude of 3,700 meters (about two and a half miles).
