About an hour before midnight on December 31, 1999, Akhmat looked up into the night sky and tried to pin-point the sound of a helicopter flying low and fast over the shattered city of Grozny.
But it was an overcast night, and he knew that engaging a helicopter with anything less than a rocket launcher was a waste of ammunition.
He shrugged, adjusted the heavy machine-gun on his shoulder, and trudged to the frontline trenches surrounding the Chechen capital.
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Days later, he could have kicked himself. The helicopter, he realised,…
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