Battle of Grozny (August 1996)

Battle of Grozny (August 1996)
	Part of First Chechen War
Date	August 6–20, 1996; (2 weeks)
Location	Grozny, Chechnya43°19′N 45°41′E / 43.31°N 45.69°E
Result	Chechen victory;
Belligerents
Russia Loyalist opposition;	Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Commanders and leaders
Konstantin Pulikovsky; Vyacheslav Ovchinikov; Doku Zavgayev; Said-Magomed Kakiyev; Alu Alkhanov;	Aslan Maskhadov; Shamil Basayev; Ruslan Gelayev; Doku Umarov; Akhmed Zakayev; Ibn al-Khattab;
Strength
7,000–12,000; 200 IFVs/APCs	1,000 to 2,000
Casualties and losses
Russian military data:; 687 soldiers killed; 1,407 wounded; 18 tanks destroyed; 69 IFVs/APCs destroyed; 4 helicopters destroyed	Unknown
	est. 2,000+ civilians killed

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. Russian federal forces had captured the city in a previous battle that ended in February 1995, and subsequently posted a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.

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. The final result was a ceasefire that effectively ended the First Chechen War of 1994–1996.