RUSSIAN armed forces have killed more than 10_000 Chechen rebels since they launched their intervention in the southern republic on October 1, 1999, military sources in the northern Caucasus said on Sunday. Anti-terrorist” operations, as Moscow terms its actions in Chechnya, have killed an estimated total of 10_720 rebels, the military news agency AVN quoted the general staff of Russian armed forces in the northern Caucasus as saying. In the past 17 months the rebels have lost nine tanks, 32 armoured vehicles, six artillery systems, 555 bases, 578 munitions dumps and 4 534 installations for the illegal refining of petroleum, the sources said. Early last month a senior Russian military official said Russian forces in Chechnya had lost 2_728 men to date.