On 23 November 2006, large numbers of Defense Ministry and FSB troops, without the participation of Chechen police, supported by helicopters and artillery barrages, were reported to have surrounded Umarov and his forces in a forest near the village of Yandi-Katar in the Achkhoy-Martanovsky District, on the internal border between Ingushetia and Chechnya. According to "Kommersant", Umarov was wounded in the operation but managed to escape the pursuit. He spent the winter months traveling across the mountains to the nearby republic of Kabardino-Balkaria to meet with local "jamaat"s fighting Russian authorities in the region and consolidate the Caucasian Front, the pan-Caucasian Islamic militant network set up by Sadulayev. In April 2007, a group of fighters that might have been personally led by Umarov shot down a desant helicopter with the Spetsnaz GRU troops near Shatoy, killing at least 18 Russian soldiers.