Russian troops continue to `cleanse’ Chechnya

The head of the organisation for security and cooperation in Europe arrived, meanwhile, in a province neighbouring breakaway Chechnya and urged both sides to declare a truce to let residents escape the besieged capital.

Shells tore into the village of Chiri-Yurt at the mouth of the Argun river gorge leading into the mountains 20 km south of Grozny after dusk on Monday, shooting clouds of orange smoke into the sky and sending panicked residents scurrying for cover.

Rebel spokesman Movladi Udugov said Russian forces had launched attacks on Grozny’s eastern outskirts through freezing mist at dawn Monday. Battles had lasted all day in three areas, including the Khankala military airport east of the city.

The fighting was followed by fierce Russian shelling, although the Chechens drove Moscow’s forces from Khankala after they briefly seized it, Udugov said.

A Russian defence ministry spokesman said as far as he was aware the airport remained in Moscow’s hands.

“Tomorrow towards the morning we expect a new attack on (Grozny),” Udugov told Reuters, speaking from an undisclosed location in Chechnya.

Russia has denied it plans an all-out assault on Grozny, where tens of thousands of civilians still live, cowering in fear in cellars from almost daily shelling and air raids.

The number of people in Grozny is not known. Estimates have varied from 15,000 to 80,000, mostly the elderly and infirm who could not earlier flee. Rebels have said Russian troops have not stopped firing near the corridors. This could not be confirmed.

Meanwhile, explosions from shelling and air strikes could also be heard from the village of Duba-Yurt and other settlements in the gorge farther south, where Islamic militia known as Wahhabists have set up their bases as they retreat from lowland positions.

A Chechen rebel web site said on Tuesday that rebels had shot down two Russian jets and three helicopters during Monday’s strikes on settlements in the Argun gorge.

Russian news agencies quoted officials as confirming a single jet and a helicopter had crashed, saying they said they had either been shot down or suffered some kind of accident. Interfax news agency also quoted Chechen official Isa Munayev as saying the rebels took the jet pilot prisoner.