Russia sets sights on South

Valery Manilov, first deputy chief of the general staff, told NTV commercial television it was still too early to declare the operation in Grozny completed, but troops could now be redeployed towards the southern mountain areas.

“As the task of freeing Grozny from bandit groups is carried out, it allows us to regroup forces in the southern direction to complete the routing and liquidation of bandit groups in the Argun gorge and mountainous regions,” Manilov said.

Russian troops, who claimed major successes in the past week over rebels seeking toescape from Grozny, are continuing to comb outlying villages, but Itar-Tass news agency reported at least one reversal in a village southwest of Grozny.

It said a group of up to about 1,000 Chechen rebels had attacked Katyr-Yurt, a village about 30 km southwest of the capital where a detachment of Russian interior ministry troops was based.

“Using their numerical superiority and the factor of surprise, the bandits engaged the Omon (police commandos) in an uneven battle,” Tass quoted the local interior ministry press service as saying.

Three of the Omon were killed and six wounded, it added.

Tass said the interior troops abandoned the village and the rebels were now surrounded and under attack by federal forces.

Interfax said Russian warplanes and helicopter gunships had flown 130 sorties in the past 24 hours, striking at targets mostly in Grozny and in the Argun Gorge which leads to the southern mountains where rebels have their main strongholds.

Some of the aircraftdropped leaflets calling on the rebels to surrender, the agency said. Manilov reiterated that the only talks with rebels could be about surrender.

“We have nothing to agree on with rebels. They have to be forced to capitulate so that their senseless, irresponsible activities do not lead to new victims and destruction,” he said.

“At the level of commanders, it is possible to talk about conditions for surrender into captivity, giving up of weapons. Such talks can take place,” he added.

French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, a frequent critic of the campaign, met acting President Vladimir Putin yesterday and urged Russia to look ahead to consider what status Chechnya might have within its federal structures.

Manilov yesterday hailed the successes in taking Grozny and said Russia could now reduce the number of troops in the rebel region. But today, he made clear that Moscow was not about to call an end to what it calls an “anti-terrorist operation”.

He said Russian special services were nowhunting rebel leaders but that they had no escape.

“As for individual groups and rebels that managed to breakthrough (from Grozny), their further advance is blocked and either they will surrender or they will be destroyed,” he said.

Manilov said yesterday more than 10,000 fighters had been killed since the start of the war and that “hundreds, several hundred” of civilians had probably died in the fighting.