The Times (UK)

10 December 1999

[for personal use only]

High-tech vacuum bombs may be used against Grozny

Observers fear ultimatum may have been a coded warning, Giles Whittell writes

SHOULD the Russian military carry out its threat to destroy those left in

Grozny this weekend, it will not want for hardware. Human rights workers have

said that the army command may be planning to use high-explosive bombs to

kill those still hiding in cellars.

So far Russia has used powerful but mainly simple weapons in its bombardment

of Chechnya: rockets fired from aircraft and helicopters, shells, and

notoriously inaccurate Grad and Uragan rockets fired from multiple launchers.

These have largely failed against fighters and civilians sheltering in

Grozny's cellars. But fuel-air or vacuum bombs were designed for such

targets, and experts fear that the weekend ultimatum may have been a tacit

warning that they are next on Russia's list. Vacuum bombs use two explosives,

one to release the fuel cloud and a second to ignite it in a mushroom-shaped

fireball that can incinerate whole buildings, but kills chiefly with a

shockwave that collapses victims' lungs. They have been likened to "theatre"

nuclear weapons in their destructive power.

"We are fully aware that Russia's arsenal includes very powerful explosive

devices that could cause tremendous casualties," Sasha Petrov, a Human Rights

Watch spokesman in Ingushetia, said yesterday. "We are concerned that they

might be used to get to people hiding in their basements."

Sources said eyewitness accounts of an October attack on Grozny's central

market suggest vacuum bombs may have been used even then. Up to 200 died.

The generals say they intend to go on hitting Grozny from the air. Tupolev

Tu-22 heavy bombers are being moved to the army base outside Mozdok in North

Ossetia.

These have raised the spectre of carpet bombing with free-fall weapons,

including 1,100lb concrete-piercing bombs. Should greater accuracy be called

for, two high-tech Ka 50 "Black Shark" attack helicopers have been reported

to be on standby. Bristling with rocket launchers and machineguns, these are

the Russian equivalent of the US Apache gunships.