Chechen fighters launched a huge attack on police and army buildings in a southern Russia town on Thursday in a brazen operation that killed dozens and challenged Kremlin assertions it had the turbulent Caucasus under control, according to Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 by talking tough on Chechnya, stepped into the crisis, ordering his security forces to throw a ring of steel round the town of Nalchik and kill any gunman who put up resistance. "The president gave an instruction that not one gunman should be allowed to leave the town, and those who are armed and putting up resistance must be wiped out," Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin said after meeting Putin, Interfax news agency reported. Regional officials quoted by Russian news agencies said that after a morning of mayhem in Nalchik, main city of the Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria region near rebel Chechnya, at least 12 local residents had been killed and 64 others wounded.
