Shock troops or assault troops are special formations created to lead military attacks . They are often better trained and equipped than other military units and are expected to take heavier casualties even in successful operations.
62-499: (Redirected from Shock Troop ) [REDACTED] Look up shock troop in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Shock troop might refer to: Shock troops , troops intended to lead an attack Shock Troopers , an arcade game Shock Troops (album) , an album by punk rock band Cock Sparrer, released in 1982 Shock Troop (film) , a 1934 German film Shock Troops (film) ,
124-590: A 1967 French film Shock (troupe) , an English music/mime/dance/pop group See also [ edit ] Storm trooper (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Shock troop . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shock_troop&oldid=1181008416 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
186-681: A 39-man Soviet Airborne company. In October 1985, specialist operators from the KGB's Group "A" ( Alpha ) were dispatched to Beirut , Lebanon . The Kremlin had been informed of the kidnapping of four Soviet diplomats by the militant group, the Islamic Liberation Organization (a radical offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood ). It was believed that this was retaliation for the Soviet support of Syrian involvement in
248-485: A Soviet spetsnaz air-assault. The Spetsnaz achieved victory by knocking out several rebel positions above the base, a mile-long series of fortified caves in a remote canyon. A successful long-term campaign codenamed Operation "Curtain" or "Veil", lasted from 1984 to 1988, which aimed to close off the Afghan-Pakistani border and cut off supply routes coming in from Pakistan. The operation caused great distress to
310-689: A communist nation defeat an American ally, and secondly, test and evaluate their most sophisticated radars and missiles directly against the best aircraft America could deploy. Soviets recovered at least two very important pieces of American equipment, a cryptographic code machine, and an F-111A escape capsule, which now sits in a Moscow Museum . Soviet Spetsnaz forces took part in the Soviet–Afghan War of 1979–1989 in Afghanistan, usually fighting fast insertion/extraction-type warfare with helicopters. Their most famous operation, Operation Storm-333 ,
372-461: A ground reconnaissance detachment. This unit, the 4th Special Volunteer Detachment , was to be recruited from the fleet's athletes and have an initial size of 65 to 70 personnel. Later the unit was renamed the 181st Special Reconnaissance Detachment. They were trained as frogmen. The most prominent of these new recruits was Viktor Leonov , who joined the Soviet Navy in 1937. He was assigned to
434-602: A reconnaissance mission around a Soviet cruiser berthed at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1956. In November 2007 the BBC and the Daily Mirror reported that Eduard Koltsov, a former Soviet frogman , claimed to have caught Crabb placing a mine on the Ordzhonikidze hull near the ammunition depot and cut his throat. In an interview for a Russian documentary film, Koltsov showed the dagger he allegedly used, as well as an Order of
496-681: A series of federal government reforms consolidating power in the Kremlin and strengthening of the powers of the President of Russia . The crisis began when a group of armed radical Islamist combatants, mostly Ingush and Chechen, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan , North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation ) on 1 September 2004. The hostage-takers were
558-481: A special freezer truck. In the years following the hostage-taking, more than 40 of the surviving attackers were tracked down and have been assassinated, including Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev in 2002 and Shamil Basayev in 2006, and more than 20 were sentenced, by the Stavropol territorial court, to various terms of imprisonment. The mass sieges which saw people taken in the thousands also involved FSB's Alpha Group and
620-882: A submarine training detachment and then transferred to a repair station in the Northern Fleet at Polyarnyy . Leonov had trained as a scuba diver , after which he joined 4th Special Volunteer Detachment, where he proved his daring and leadership skills conducting numerous clandestine operations and twice being awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union . Initially the unit was confined to performing small scale reconnaissance missions, platoon sized insertions by sea and on occasion on land into Finland and later Norway. They began conducting sabotage missions and raids to snatch prisoners for interrogation. They would also destroy German ammunition and supply depots, communication centers, and harass enemy troop concentrations along
682-487: A variety of Soviet special operations ( spetsoperatsiya ) units. In addition, many Cheka and Internal Troops units (such as OMSDON and ODON ) also included osobovo naznacheniya in their full names. Regular forces assigned to special tasks were sometimes also referred to by terms such as Spetsnaz and osnaz . Spetsnaz later referred specifically to special ( spetsialnogo ) purpose ( naznacheniya ) or special operations (spetsoperatsiya; spec ops ) forces, and
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#1732791399093744-760: Is a Russian term, it is typically associated with the special units of Russia, but other post-Soviet states often refer to their special forces units by the term as well, since these nations also inherited their special purpose units from the now-defunct Soviet security agencies. The Russian abbreviations spetsnaz and osnaz are syllabic abbreviations of Soviet era Russian, for spetsialnogo naznacheniya and osobogo naznacheniya , both of which may be interpreted as "special purpose". As syllabic acronyms they are not normally capitalized . In Ukrainian they are known as spetspryz ( спецприз ), an abbreviation of viiska spetsiialnoho pryznachennia ( війська спеціяльного призначення ). They are general terms that were used for
806-771: Is believed that during the war in Afghanistan, Soviet special forces came in direct conflict with Pakistan Army 's special forces, the Special Service Group . This unit was deployed disguised as Afghans, supporting the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets. A battle reported as having been fought between the Pakistanis and Soviet troops took place in Kunar Province in March 1986. According to Soviet sources,
868-809: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Shock troops "Shock troop" is a calque , a loose translation of the German word Stoßtrupp (literally "push squad"). Assault troopers are typically organized for mobility with the intention that they will penetrate enemy defenses and attack into the enemy's vulnerable rear areas . Any specialized, elite unit formed to fight an engagement via overwhelming assault (usually) would be considered shock troops, as opposed to " special forces " or commando -style units (intended mostly for covert operations ). However, both types of units could fight behind enemy lines, by surprise if required. The Companion cavalry of Alexander
930-599: The Alpha Group and Zenith Group . The Soviet forces occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul , including their primary target – the Tajbeg Palace . In the first one and a half years of the war, Spetsnaz units in the form of the 459th special forces company, were exclusively responsible for reconnaissance missions and intelligence gathering for the 40th Army . Aside from reconnaissance,
992-836: The First World War , many combatants faced the deadlock of trench warfare . On the Western Front in 1915, the Germans formed a specialized unit called the Rohr Battalion to develop assault tactics. During the Brusilov Offensive of 1916, the Russian general Aleksei Brusilov developed and implemented the idea of shock troops to attack weak points along the Austrian lines to effect a breakthrough, which
1054-728: The Kronstadt rebellion 1921, setting up machine guns behind units of the Red Army, to "increase their motivation". The GRU and NKVD descended from the Cheka . Since 1927 Russians were experimenting with parachutes. Airborne units were used against central Asian and Afghan insurgents. GRU and NKVD derived from the Cheka and participated in the Spanish Civil War fighting fascists behind their lines using guerilla strategies. Fighting Germany, Japan, Poland and Finland in
1116-597: The Lebanese Civil War . However, by the time the Alpha group arrived, one of the hostages had already been killed. In a tit-for-tat response, Alpha group operators first identified the terrorists using local sources, then moved into the Lebanese villages where the terrorists were from and took their relatives as hostages. Some of the hostages were dismembered, and their body parts sent to the hostage takers, with
1178-566: The Moscow theatre hostage crisis and the Beslan school hostage crisis . The crisis took place from 14 to 19 June 1995, when a group of 80 to 200 Chechen terrorists led by Shamil Basayev attacked the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk , where they stormed the main police station and the city hall. After several hours of fighting and Russian reinforcements imminent, the Chechens retreated to
1240-599: The Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion , sent by the Chechen terrorist warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded recognition of the independence of Chechnya at the United Nations and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. On the third day of the standoff, counter terrorism units stormed the building using heavy weapons after several explosions rocked the building and children started escaping. It
1302-547: The Russian Revolution of 1917. Also, during World War I, General Aleksei Brusilov became one of the first senior commanders to use the tactics of fast action shock troops for assaults following concentrated accurate artillery fire in what would later be known as the Brusilov Offensive of 1916. Such tactics, considered revolutionary at the time, would later inspire people like Prussian Captain Willy Rohr in
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#17327913990931364-532: The Second World War , new units of storm pioneers, parachuters, NKVD and GRU were set up. Thereby the soviets merged existing experiences and started to unify different military branches . The Soviet leadership had an urgent need for intelligence on German land forces in northern Norway and Finland . On 5 July 1941 Admiral Arseniy Golovko of the Northern Fleet authorized the formation of
1426-741: The Spetsnaz GRU in attempted rescuing of the hostages. Russian special forces were instrumental in Russia's and the Kremlin backed government's success in the Second Chechen War after learning lessons from the mishandling of the first war . Under joint command of Unified Group of Troops (OGV) formed on 23 September 1999. GRU, FSB and MVD spetsnaz operators conducted a myriad of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, including targeted killings of separatist leadership, in
1488-576: The Vietnam War . Within South Vietnam , rumors persisted for years that men with blue eyes were reportedly spotted doing recon missions and testing their new SVD Dragunov sniper rifles. John Stryker Meyer was with Studies and Observation Group RT Idaho and had two encounters with what they believed were spetsnaz units operating in Laos in 1968. Their mission was twofold: first of all, to help
1550-567: The Volgograd bombings under the demands of Umarov, and a number of National Olympic Committees had also received threats via e-mail, threatening that terrorists would kidnap or "blow up" athletes during the Games. In response to the insurgent threats, Russian special forces cracked down on suspected terrorist organizations, making several arrests and claiming to have curbed several plots, and killed numerous Islamist leaders including Eldar Magatov,
1612-983: The 459th was also tasked with capturing prisoners, kidnapping enemy agents, and targeted assassination of leaders and field commanders of the Mujahideen. By 1985, the GRU had expanded its special forces footprint to two Spetsnaz brigades in Afghanistan, comprising just under 5,000 troops. These were the: 15th Special Purpose Brigade – paired up and supported by 239th Helicopter Squadron equipped with Mi-24 (16 units), Mi-8 (16 units), deployment in Ghazni . 22nd Special Purpose Brigade – paired up and supported by 205th Helicopter Squadron equipped with Mi-24 (16 units) Mi-8 (16 units) deployed in Lashkar Gah . The Spetsnaz often conducted missions to ambush and destroy enemy supply convoys. The Mujahideen had great respect for
1674-549: The Chechens of using the hostages as human shields. According to official figures, 129 civilians were killed and 415 were injured in the entire event (of whom 18 later died of their wounds). This includes at least 105 hostage fatalities. However, according to an independent estimate 166 hostages were killed and 541 injured in the special forces attack on the hospital. At least 11 Russian police officers and 14 soldiers were killed. Basayev's force suffered 11 men killed and one missing; most of their bodies were returned to Chechnya in
1736-525: The FSB headquarters. Militant leader Doku Umarov —dubbed "Russia's Osama bin Laden "—took responsibility for the attacks. In July 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev expanded the FSB's powers in its fight against terrorism. In 2011, Federal Security Service exposed 199 foreign spies, including 41 professional spies and 158 agents employed by foreign intelligence services. The number has risen in recent years: in 2006
1798-467: The FSB reportedly caught about 27 foreign intelligence officers and 89 foreign agents. Comparing the number of exposed spies historically, the then-FSB Director Nikolay Kovalyov said in 1996: "There has never been such a number of spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II." The 2011 figure is similar to what was reported in 1995–1996, when around 400 foreign intelligence agents were uncovered during
1860-1056: The Finnish and Russian coasts. When the European conflict ended, the Naval Scouts were sent to fight the Japanese. Leonov along with Capt. Kulebyakin and 140 men, landed on a Japanese airfield at Port Vonsan , unaware that they were opposed by over 3,500 enemy soldiers. A tense standoff ensued, until the commanding officers of the unit managed to bluff the Japanese forces into surrendering. Each Soviet front/army up to 1942 had their own independent guard-battalion ( Otdelnly Gwardieskij Batalion Minerow), OGBM, so called miners, for reconnaissance and commando missions. The soldiers had to be younger than 30, were mostly athletes or hunters and had to identify 100% with their mission. Many exhausted and wounded soldiers were, even in training, left to their own devices. The selection methods qualified
1922-731: The Great (356-326 BC) are described as being the first example of shock cavalry being used in Europe. During the Paraguayan War (1864–1870), in which Paraguay fought against Brazil , Argentina , and Uruguay , the Paraguayans deployed shock troops (composed of a mixture of dismounted cavalry and fit men who could row and swim) armed with sabres, cutlasses, knives, bayonets, pistols, and hand grenades. They attacked small fortified positions and boarded Brazilian river steamers. During
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1984-571: The Red Star medal that Koltsov claimed to have been awarded for the deed. Koltsov, 74 at the time of the interview, stated that he wanted to clear his conscience and uncover what exactly had happened to Crabb. Peter Mercer of the Special Boat Service describes this incident in his autobiography: "The cruiser [Ordzhonikidze] was carrying the two Soviet leaders, Khrushchev and Bulganin, on a goodwill visit to Britain. His [Crabb's] task
2046-559: The Soviet Union's Spetsnaz GRU , special operations units of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff (GRU). Today it refers to special forces branches and task forces subordinate to ministries including defence, internal affairs, or emergency situations in countries that have inherited their special purpose units from the now-defunct Soviet security agencies . As spetsnaz
2108-658: The Spetsnaz, seeing them as a much more difficult opponent than the typical Soviet conscript soldier. They said that the Spetsnaz-led air assault operations had changed the complexion of the war. They also credited the Spetsnaz with closing down all the supply routes along the Afghan-Pakistani border in 1986. In April 1986, the rebels lost one of their biggest bases, at Zhawar in Paktia Province , to
2170-435: The assault group: Colonel Oleg Ilyin, Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Razumovsky of Vega, and Major Alexander Perov of Alpha. At least 30 commandos suffered serious wounds. By the mid-2000s, the special forces gained a firm upper hand over separatists and terrorist attacks in Russia dwindled, falling from 257 in 2005 to 48 in 2007. Military analyst Vitaly Shlykov praised the effectiveness of Russia's security agencies, saying that
2232-507: The attack leading to doctors in local hospitals being unable to respond adequately to the influx of casualties. All but two of the hostages who died during the siege were killed by the toxic substance pumped into the theatre to subdue the militants. The use of the gas was widely condemned as heavy-handed. Physicians in Moscow condemned the refusal to disclose the identity of the gas that prevented them from saving more lives. Some reports said
2294-523: The battle was actually fought between the GRU's 15th Spetsnaz Brigade, and the Usama Bin Zaid regiment of Afghan Mujahideen under Commander Assadullah, belonging to Abdul rub a-Rasul Sayyaf's faction. Fighting is also alleged to have taken place during Operation Magistral where over 200 Mujahideen were killed in a failed attempt to capture the strategic Hill 3234 near the Pakistani border from
2356-574: The ceiling and caused casualties in excess of 80% of the auditorium's occupants. After a two-and-a-half-day siege and the execution of two hostages, spetsnaz operators from the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alpha and Vympel a.k.a. Vega Groups , supported by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) SOBR unit, pumped an undisclosed chemical agent into the building's ventilation system and raided it. During
2418-607: The development of the Prussian Stormtroopers (founded in 1915). The origins of the Spetsnaz can be found in the Russian Civil War . To act against anti-Communist workers and farmers, the Soviet regime set up so called Tschasti Osobogo Nasatschenia (Units for special use) in 1918. In the next year they were expanded to the so-called Cheka (The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission), fighting counterrevolution and (alleged) sabotage. They took part in
2480-507: The drug naloxone was used to save some hostages. Also referred to as the Beslan massacre started on 1 September 2004, lasted three days and involved the capture of over 1,100 people as hostages (including 777 children), ending with the death of 334 people. The event led to security and political repercussions in Russia; in the aftermath of the crisis, there has been an increase in Ingush – Ossetian ethnic hostility, while contributing to
2542-720: The end of the Second World War the Soviet Union dissolved most of the special units. At the end of the 1950s the KGB and GRU set new special forces units up. The 3rd guard special-reconnaissance-brigade was founded in 1966, being stationed with the Soviet forces in East Germany in Fürstenberg / Havel . Lieutenant-Commander Lionel Crabb was a British Royal Navy frogman and MI6 diver who vanished during
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2604-434: The enemy front and rear, bypassing and avoiding what enemy strong points they could, and engaging to their best advantage when and where they were forced to, leaving decisive engagement against bypassed units to following heavier infantry. The primary goal of these detached units was to infiltrate the enemy's lines and break their cohesion as much as possible. These formations became known as Stoßtruppen , or shock troops, and
2666-595: The experience learned in Chechnya and Dagestan had been key to the success. In 2008, the American Carnegie Endowment 's Foreign Policy magazine named Russia as "the worst place to be a terrorist", particularly highlighting Russia's willingness to prioritize national security over civil rights. By 2010, Russian special forces, led by the FSB, had managed to eliminate the top leadership of the Chechen insurgency, except for Dokka Umarov . From 2009,
2728-605: The highly questionable, have captivated the imagination of Russians. A number of books about the Soviet military special forces, such as 1987's Spetsnaz: The Story Behind the Soviet SAS by defected GRU agent Viktor Suvorov , helped introduce the term to the Western public. The Imperial Russian Army had hunter-commando units, formed by a decree of Emperor Alexander III in 1886, which saw action in World War I prior to
2790-421: The hospital compound at dawn on the fourth day, meeting fierce resistance. After several hours of fighting in which many hostages were killed by crossfire, a local ceasefire was agreed, and 227 hostages were released; 61 others were freed by the Russian forces. A second Russian attack on the hospital a few hours later also failed and so did a third, resulting in even more casualties. The Russian authorities accused
2852-502: The kidnappers. Either way, the show of brutal force had its effect, and for the next 20 years no Soviet or Russian officials were taken captive, until June 2006. After the collapse of the USSR, spetsnaz forces of the Soviet Union's newly formed republics took part in many local conflicts such as the Tajikistani Civil War , Chechen Wars , Russo-Georgian War and the Russo-Ukrainian War . Spetsnaz forces also have been called upon to resolve several high-profile hostage situations such as
2914-425: The level of terrorism in Russia increased again. Particularly worrisome was the increase in suicide attacks. While between February 2005 and August 2008, no civilians were killed in such attacks, in 2008 at least 17 were killed and in 2009 the number rose to 45. In March 2010, Islamist militants organised the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings , which killed 40 people. One of the two blasts took place at Lubyanka station, near
2976-494: The main Russian Army could then exploit. The Russian Army had also formed hunter commando units in 1886 and used them in World War I to protect against ambushes, to perform reconnaissance and for low-intensity fights in no-man's-land. The von Hutier tactics ( infiltration tactics ) called for special infantry assault units to be detached from the main lines and sent to infiltrate enemy lines, supported by shorter and sharper (than usual for WWI) artillery fire missions targeting both
3038-604: The meantime inflicting heavy casualties among Islamist separatists. Some of these successful missions were directed against separatist leaders such as Aslan Maskhadov , Abdul Halim Sadulayev , Dokka Umarov , Akhmadov brothers , Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev , Akhmed Avtorkhanov , Ibn al-Khattab , Abu al-Walid , Abu Hafs al-Urduni , Muhannad , Ali Taziev , Supyan Abdullayev , Shamil Basayev , Ruslan Gelayev , Salman Raduyev , Sulim Yamadayev , Rappani Khalilov , Yassir al-Sudani . During these missions, many operators received honors for their courage and prowess in combat, including with
3100-451: The mujahedin war effort, with Spetsnaz units intercepting 990 supply caravans and killing 17,000 insurgents. For their role in Operation Curtain , the Spetsnaz suffered a total of 570 killed with a further 11 missing. Casualty breakdown by unit was: In May 1986, the Spetsnaz also succeeded in inserting air-assault forces into remote regions in Konar Valley near Barikot which were previously considered inaccessible to Soviet forces. It
3162-411: The raid, all of the attackers were killed, with no casualties among spetsnaz, but about 130 hostages, including nine foreigners, died due to poor first aid after falling unconscious from the gas. Most died after being evacuated from the theatre and laid outside on their backs instead of in the approved recovery position and then choking to death. Russian security agencies refused to disclose the gas used in
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#17327913990933224-486: The residential district and regrouped in the city hospital, where they took between 1,500 and 1,800 hostages, most of them civilians (including about 150 children and a number of women with newborn infants). After three days of siege, the Russian authorities ordered the security forces to retake the hospital compound. The forces deployed were elite personnel from the Federal Security Service 's Alpha Group, alongside MVD militsiya and Internal Troops. The strike force attacked
3286-572: The tactics they pioneered were the basis of post-WWI infantry tactics, such as the development of fire teams . The same sort of tactical doctrine was widely espoused in British and French service in late 1917 and 1918, with variable results. The British Army standard training manual for platoon tactics, SS 143, was used from February 1917 onwards and contained much of what was standard for German shock troops. Spetsnaz#History Spetsnaz ( Russian : Спецназ ) are special forces in many post-Soviet states . Historically, this term referred to
3348-401: The threat that their relatives were next. The remaining hostages were released immediately. Russian sources indicate that the release of the Soviet hostages was the result of extensive diplomatic negotiations with the spiritual leader of Hezbollah , Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah , who appealed to King Hussein of Jordan and the leaders of Libya and Iran to use their influence on
3410-431: The title Hero of the Russian Federation . At least 106 FSB and GRU operators died during the conflict. The crisis was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theatre on 23 October 2002 by 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya . They took 850 hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War . The siege
3472-453: The troops as elite but caused high numbers of casualties. The "miners" infiltrated foreign-occupied areas by air and land, and cooperated with, and trained, local partisans . Immediately before the major Russian offensive at Smolesk in 1943, 316 OGBM were dropped by parachute in nine groups. Up to 300 km behind the enemy lines, they blew up 700 km of railways in cooperation with local partisans, using 3,500 explosive charges. By
3534-427: The two-year period. Olympic organizers received several threats prior to the Games. In a July 2013 video release, Chechen Islamist commander Dokka Umarov called for attacks on the Games, stating that the Games were being staged " on the bones of many, many Muslims killed ...and buried on our lands extending to the Black Sea." Threats were received from the group Vilayat Dagestan , which had claimed responsibility for
3596-411: The word's widespread use is a relatively recent, post- perestroika development in Russian language. The Soviet public used to know very little about their country's special forces until many state secrets were disclosed under the glasnost ("openness") policy of Mikhail Gorbachev during the late 1980s. Since then, stories about spetsnaz and their purportedly incredible prowess, from the serious to
3658-415: Was executed on 27 December 1979 which saw Soviet special forces storming the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and killing Afghan President Hafizullah Amin , his son and over 300 of his personal guards in 40 minutes. The Soviets then installed Babrak Karmal as Amin's successor. The operation involved approximately 660 Soviet operators dressed in Afghan uniforms, including ca. 50 KGB and GRU officers from
3720-460: Was in this chaos most of the officers were killed, trying to protect escaping children from gun fire. At least 334 hostages were killed as a result of the crisis, including 186 children. Official reports on how many members of Russia's special forces died in the fighting varied from 11, 12, 16 (7 Alpha and 9 Vega) to more than 20 killed. There are only 10 names on the special forces monument in Beslan. The fatalities included all three commanders of
3782-417: Was officially led by Movsar Barayev . Due to the disposition of the theatre, special forces would have had to fight through 100 feet (30 m) of corridor and attack up a well defended staircase, before they could reach the hall in where the hostages were held. The terrorists also had explosive devices. The most powerful of these was in the center of the auditorium ; if detonated, it could have brought down
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#17327913990933844-492: Was to measure the cruiser's propeller and to discover how the ship managed to travel at twice the speed originally estimated by British naval intelligence." The Warsaw pact invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 to stop the " Socialism with a Human Face " movement. Spetsnaz units secured key points in the capital, Prague , seizing the airport, bridges, radio stations and the president's palace. Some 3,300 Soviet military experts, among them spetsnaz, were sent to Southeast Asia during
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