Police Bus Bombed In Chechnya

A bomb killed at least 16 pro-Moscow police in rebel Chechnya on Thursday, two hours before President Vladimir Putin declared the war over, as their bus ran over a land mine.

Chechen rebels frequently use remote-controlled mines to target Russian troops and pro-Moscow police.

There was a 15-minute exchange of gunfire after the explosion.

The attacks brought the reported 24-hour death toll to 25, including two small children and a pregnant woman, in one of the bloodiest days of a conflict that has raged throughout Putin's two years in office.

Russian troops fought a 1994-96 war in Chechnya but were forced to retreat, leaving the region with de facto independence. They returned in 1999 after rebel incursions into neighboring Russian regions and after bombings of apartment buildings blamed on the rebels killed more than 300 people in Russian cities.

Sultan Satuyev, first deputy head of pro-Moscow Chechen police, told NTV television 16 of his elite OMON officers had died in Thursday morning's attack on a truck, 200 yards from their headquarters in the regional capital Grozny.

Reports said five others were wounded.

"I think, whatever happens, we will respond. The OMON and Chechen police have started to operate," Satuyev said.

"It seems they (the rebels) want to intimidate us...They will not succeed," he said. "These are not people but monsters."

Putin devoted only a single minute to Chechnya in an hour-long annual State of the Nation address, declaring the "military stage" of the conflict over. Russia has made that claim repeatedly over the past two years despite losing thousands of troops in unabated violence.

NTV said gunfire and explosions could be heard in Grozny, and Interfax news agency said Russian SU-24 frontline bombers had launched air strikes on the mountains.

On Wednesday, six Russian troops died and 11 were injured in two separate mine attacks in the south, Interfax reported. It said Russian forces mortared the mountain village of Gorgachi in apparent reprisal for one of the attacks.

A local official told the agency two small children and a pregnant woman had died in the mortar strikes. Interfax later quoted military prosecutors as saying two civilians had died, and pledging to prosecute the soldiers responsible.

For the second year in a row, Putin used his annual speech to declare an end to the military operation in Chechnya. Yet since Russian troops retook most rebel territory in early 2000, there has been no let-up in rebel attacks or Russian reprisals.

In last year's speech Putin said the army was withdrawing, its task complete. But plans to pull out large numbers of troops, announced several times with fanfare, have never been carried out.

With the exception of a single meeting last November, Russia has refused any talks with the separatist leadership aimed at ending the violence.

"The military stage of conflict we can consider finished. It is finished thanks to the bravery and heroism of the army and special units of Russia," Putin said on Thursday.

"A year ago we were counting those who opposed us: how many bandits and terrorists. Two thousand? three, five, ten? Today, it is not important how many there are. We just need to know where they are," he said.

"Peaceful life is still violated by the remaining bandits, but the rights of an entire people cannot be wrecked because of this," Putin said. "All residents of Chechnya, or those who have come from there, should consider themselves fully-fledged citizens of the Russian Federation."

The main task in Chechnya was now to set up functioning political, legal and law enforcement institutions, he said.

Russia says its enemies in Chechnya are foreign-born or foreign-funded Islamic extremists, and its war there is part of the international war against terror.

Western governments share Russia's concern that some foreign Islamic radicals have operated in Chechnya, but accuse Moscow of making the situation far worse by refusing to open up a peace dialogue with mainstream local pro-independence leaders.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya after a 1994-96 war, but Putin, then prime minister, sent them back in 1999. Russian troops nominally control nearly all the region but still die nearly every day in shooting and bombing attacks.

Russian commanders say rebel attacks are likely to increase in the next few months as leaves return to the trees, providing better cover for ambushes.