Moscow, 20 May: The losses of the Combined Force in the North Caucasus in 2008 amounted to 17 servicemen, the force's commander Maj-Gen Nikolay Sivak has said.

"Unfortunately, we were unable to reduce the losses compared to last year. Since the beginning of this year and up to 27 April, 17 people have died; last year [2007] 15 people died during the same period," Sivak said in an interview in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published on Tuesday [20 May].

He said that 32 militants had been killed since the beginning of 2008. "Last year the figure was about the same," he said.

Sivak said that in the Chechen Republic "on the whole the situation is stable".

"The Chechen police are contributing a lot to stabilizing the situation, and their leaders react to changes in the situation in a professional manner. The Chechen police have the situation under control and they are helping the troops. A total of 10,000 Chechen policemen serve in the Combined Force in the North Caucasus," Sivak said.

He said that militants are currently facing shortages in arms and ammunition.

"At the same time, unfortunately, we cannot say that the militants have completely stopped their activities," he said. He said that "there is still an outflow of young people into the militants' ranks ".

"Many of the militants we catch in the mountains are 20 years old at the most. This means that certain young lads fall victim to Wahhabi propaganda and, unfortunately, leave for the mountains," Sivak said.

He gave the reasons for such a state of affairs. They are, in particular, the high level of unemployment (almost 60 per cent of the population of working age) and low wages, which are on average only R2,500 a month [about 100 dollars].

"The second reason is that the local population either support the militant groups or remain neutral; they do not oppose them or give them up to the federal forces. If it were not for this attitude amongst the people, the militant groups would have been done away with a long time ago," Sivak said.

He also said that militants are continuing to receive financing from abroad.