War On Chechnya Intensifies
Russian forces hoisted the country's flag over Chechnya's second-largest city Saturday, claiming full control as federal aircraft obliterated apartment buildings elsewhere in the rebel republic.
Military officials said the bombing blitz was the most intensive yet in Russia's two-month-old campaign against Chechnya -- 180 sorties by fighter jets and helicopter gunships since Friday, despite snow and low clouds over many areas of the mountainous republic.
Russian ground forces, meanwhile, were apparently trying to surround the capital, Grozny. They have advanced from Russian-held areas in the north around to the east, raiding Chechnya's second-largest city of Gudermes, and southwest of the capital, toward the town of Urus-Martan.
Russian soldiers moved into Gudermes on Friday and launched a methodic house-by-house search for militants. On Saturday, military officials claimed control of the city, hoisting a Russian flag in a central square and playing the Russian anthem.
Russian commanders held a rally in the city center and promised residents electricity within days, and soldiers began delivering food and humanitarian aid.
The Chechens gave no casualty estimate for the Gudermes operation. Interior Ministry commander Col. Gennady Fomenko said the takeover went smoothly.
The United States and other Western countries have accused Russia of excessive force in Chechnya, leading to high civilian casualties. Moscow has angrily dismissed the criticism as interference in its internal affairs, and has insisted that Russian forces are hitting only Islamic rebels.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday about Chechnya. Putin insisted that Russia's only goal in Chechnya is to destroy Â"terrorists.Â"
Russia accuses the Chechen rebels of invading the neighboring republic of Dagestan and bombing Russian apartment buildings in a series of attacks that killed about 300 people.
But the campaign increasingly appears aimed at reasserting Moscow's control over Chechnya, which has been effectively independent since Chechen rebels fought Russian forces in a 1994-96 war.
The Chechen military command said Saturday that Russian airstrikes destroyed five nine-story apartment buildings in Grozny. One of the bombs directly hit a concrete bomb shelter in the city center, killing nine people, including seven elderly women, the command said.
Pair after pair of Russian jets dived on Urus-Martan, about nine miles south of Grozny, for several hours Friday, prompting more people to flee Chechnya.
Â"They killed many people, including children in yesterday's raids,Â" Aisat Gadabarsheva, a 49-year-old resident of Urus-Martan said after crossing the border with neighboring Ingushetia Saturday. Â"We got tired of sitting in the basement all the time.Â"
On the border with Ingushetia, the land trembled from constant pounding oheavy cannons. About 450 refugees came to Ingushetia by midday Saturday. But unlike previous days, when authorities also allowed people to return to Chechnya, access was barred Saturday without any explanation.
Putin, meanwhile, presided over a session of Russia's Security Council in the Kremlin which discussed Chechnya. Putin insisted that Russia has nothing to be ashamed of on the international stage.
Â"Our stance is well-founded from a moral point of view,Â" he said at the meeting. Â"We shall never sit down at the negotiation table with bandits.Â"
Putin also claimed that the seizure of Gudermes had marked a Â"cardinal changeÂ" in the Russian campaign, because residents had helped Russian troops Â"liberateÂ" the city from militants.
By Elmira Temirova
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