Battle of Grozny (August 1996) | |||||||
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Part of First Chechen War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
Initially 12,000[1][2][3] 200 IFVs/APCs[4] | Initially 877[1][2][3] (Up to 3,000 afterwards)[5] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Russian claim: Up to 500 killed[2] 1,407 wounded[1][2] 182 missing[1][2] 18 tanks destroyed[4] 69 IFVs/APCs destroyed[4] 4 helicopters destroyed[3] Chechen claim: At least 2,500 killed[6] | Unknown | ||||||
Estimated 2,000 or more civilians killed[1] |
The Battle of Grozny of August 1996, also known as Operation Jihad or Operation Zero Option, when Chechen fighters regained and then kept control of Chechnya's capital Grozny in a surprise raid.[7] The Russian Federation had conquered the city in a previous battle for Grozny that ended in February 1995 and subsequently posted a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.[8]
The much smaller Chechen forces infiltrated Grozny and either routed the MVD forces or split them into many pockets of resistance. Chechen fighters then beat back the Russian Ground Forces units that had been sent to eject the fighters and rescue their own trapped forces.[8] The final result was a ceasefire that effectively ended the First Chechen War of 1994–1996.