Russia began to pull its combat troops out of the breakaway republic of Chechnya on Sunday, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The tank battalions of the 131st independent motorized brigade, which participated in combat operations in Chechnya, became the first military unit withdrawn from the republic.

Tankmen together with their combat vehicles rolled away on Sunday from the Khankala railway station, situated in a Grozny suburb, to the city of Maikop, the place of the brigade's permanent deployment, Tass said.

This tank unit arrived in the North Caucasus on September 12 as part of the Eastern Army Group of Russian federal forces in the region, and took part in the fighting for capturing the city of Argun and the town of Vedeno, deputy commander of the 47th Army Corps Nikolai Kalabukhov was quoted as saying.

Russia launched its anti-terrorist military campaign last September after the Chechen rebels' incursion into neighboring Republic of Daghestan and several apartment explosions in Moscow and other two Russian cities, which killed over 300 persons.

After a five-month bloody fighting Russia liberated over two thirds of the breakaway republic's territory and nearly all its population, drove the remaining militants into the south mountains.

Earlier this week the Russian military authorities announced it was ending the final phase of the military operation in Chechnya and will withdraw its troops very soon.