Word: pankisi
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Dates: during 2002-2002
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Even before they arrive, the deployment of ?lite U.S. troops to Georgia is prompting some Chechen fighters to leave the Pankisi Gorge, Georgian officials claimed this week. However, just as swiftly, it has become evident that U.S. involvement has prompted another bout of shadowboxing between Georgia, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Chechen rebels. So far, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) remain unable to broker any kind of deal...
Gela Bezhuashvili, Georgia's deputy defense minister, said on 7 March that a "small group" of Chechen fighters had left hideouts in the Pankisi Gorge, Reuters reported. Bezhuashvili said he believed that all but a tiny fraction would follow them. There has been no independent confirmation. the whole story
...Georgia, at least a dozen al-Qaeda members are hiding in the Pankisi Gorge along the country's northeastern border, according to a U.S. official. They are thought to have arrived there after the fall of Kabul, finding the wild and remote gorge a safe harbor on their way from Afghanistan to Chechnya--where the Muslim rebellion is a favorite al-Qaeda cause...
...against terrorism moved into the volatile Trans-caucasus region as five U.S. military advisers arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The five are the advance guard of a unit that could number up to 200 to train Georgian troops to counter possible terrorist activity in the mountainous Pankisi Gorge area. Moscow reacted cautiously, with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov saying the Americans "could further aggravate the situation in the region...
...deployment over Moscow's objections would end the illusion that Russian cooperation against the Taliban will buy Western endorsement of Moscow's often brutal military campaign in Chechnya. The U.S. military has made clear it has no intention of cooperating with Russian forces against Chechen fighters in the Pankisi. The objective of any mission, officials say, would be to help the Georgian government regain control of an area that had become a haven of criminality and a sanctuary for a small number of al-Qaida operatives...