On the morning of 29 March 2000, a Russian Military Police force led by Major Valentin Simonov, consisting of some 48 men according to the Russian account (41 of them were members of the OMON special police from Perm Krai, mostly from the city of Berezniki, and the rest were attached Chechen policemen and Internal Troops paramilitary soldiers), was on its way to conduct a so-called "clearing" (zachistka) operation in the village of Tsentoroi in Chechnya's southern highlands near Vedeno, travelling in a column of two BTR-series wheeled armoured personnel carriers and heavy-duty military trucks.

A Russian airborne unit that was stationed nearby intercepted a rebel communication regarding the preparations for the ambush, but failed to warn the convoy (possibly on purpose, given the widespread loathing of OMON in Russia and especially in the context of Chechen conflict).

Major Valentin decided to personally check a bombed-out house nearby and accidentally discovered a small group of rebel fighters hiding there.

A second Perm OMON column of 107 troops was then sent to the rescue from the Interior Ministry base in Vedeno, but was itself attacked by more rebels on Height 817, located 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the ambush site.

[10] Mikhail Labunets, commander of the North Caucasus Internal Troops District, accused an airborne regiment stationed in Vedeno of failing to come to the rescue and said it was almost impossible for OMON units to secure proper air and fire support because of the long-standing enmity between the federal army and the military police.

In another controversy, Major Simonov's widow Nadya shocked the generals by refusing to accept the medal her husband had been awarded posthumously for his role in the battle, protesting the war in Chechnya.

[2][5][7] According to the investigation, the ambush was conducted by a multinational fighting group that was led by a Saudi-born Arab field commander known as Abu Quteiba and belonged to the Islamic International Brigade forces of Amir Ibn Khattab.

It was composed mostly of men hailing from the "Wahhabi" Dagestani village of Karamakhi, which declared self-rule in the late 1990s and was destroyed by federal troops during a crackdown on Islamic separatism in the republic in 1999.