China, Russia launch forced isolation drill

      WEIFANG, Shandong, Aug. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese and Russian troops launched a forced isolation drill in east China's Shandong Province Thursday as the last item of actual combat in the joint military exercise dubbed "Peace Mission 2005". 

    At 11:00 a.m., two Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers flew near the drill zone after two and a half hours flight from Russia, which unfolded the forced isolation drill.

    At that point, an A-50 early warning plane took off to establish the airborne early warning system. Other segments of thetroops also went into operation.

    At 11:07, four Tu-22M3 Russian long-range bombers from Russia also entered the drill zone and launched continuous attacks on the airport of the "enemy troops".

    Immediately after that, the airborne formation sent 18 fighter jets in nine batches to attack the enemy troops, commanding posts and defense works in the depth.

    At 11:17, the artillery began to bombard the frontline defense works and other targets in the depths of the enemy region. Meanwhile, bombs carrying propaganda materials were fired to the enemy region.

    After the attacks, the enemy forces began to readjust their deployment and retreated to the airport and key positions in the depths.

    At 11:26, a formation of 10 IL-76 transport planes carrying Chinese and Russian paratroops arrived at the airspace of the combat zone covered by electronic-jamming planes and fighter jets.

    At 11:38, the transport planes began to drop combat vehicles for the paratroops and in less than 10 minutes, 24 combat vehicleshad been dropped. After that, 86 Chinese and Russian paratroops dropped to the ground from a height of 800 meters.

    The paratroops quickly gathered around the fighting vehicles and got ready to attack pre-set targets. They launched operations and captured the airport, cutting off the air link of the enemy.

    At 11:53, a transport helicopter arrived at the dropping zone on the right of the enemy region under the cover of air fire and let out troops, who immediately launched attack on the pre-set targets to cut off the the enemy's link to sea.

    Immediately after the air link and route to sea of the enemy were cut off, the Sino-Russian joint forces sent rangers to attackthe defense line of the enemy under fire cover and quickly made breakthroughs in several spots.

    At 12:15, scores of armored vehicles from the southeast and southwest rumbled quickly to the depth of the enemy region.

    The Sino-Russian forces has successfully established the forcedisolation zone on land through sending picked troops to make breakthroughs, launching multi-point attacks, thrusting troops into the depth of the enemy region to isolate, surround and annihilate the enemy troops.

    Although the enemy troops still put up a desperate struggle, their failure has become a foregone conclusion.

    Chinese defense minister Cao Gangchuan and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov were at the drill zone to observe and issue instructions.

    Other observers included Kyrgyz Defense Minister Ismail Isakov,Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Khairullaev, Kazakh Deputy Defense Minister Abai Tasbulatov and Uzbekistan Deputy Defense Minister R.Niyazov. Enditem