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Chechen militants step up attacks on Russian troops

MOSCOW: Chechen militants stepped up their attacks on Russian troops in Chechnya on Tuesday after Moscow conceded it had made mistakes in its nearly four-month campaign to restore control over the breakaway province.

Russian warplanes and artillery blasted militant-held areas but Moscow-based media, gearing up for a presidential election campaign overshadowed by the Chechen war, began drawing parallels with the disastrous Chechnya campaign of 1994-96.

Russian news agencies said the militants retained control of much of Grozny, Chechnya's battle-scarred capital, and gave conflicting reports of who now controlled the nearby towns of Argun and Shali, previously said to be under Russian control.

Interfax news agency said 11 Russian soldiers had been killed in the fighting in Grozny, Argun and Shali in the past 24 hours.

NTV television earlier reported up to 50 Russian soldiers had been wounded in the Shali clashes alone.

Interfax quoted Chechen sources as saying the militants were resisting Russian efforts to dislodge them from positions in Shali, southeast of Grozny. The militants also said they controlled the road linking Shali to Argun, due east of Grozny.

The militants said they had destroyed a Russian military post just south of Argun, Interfax reported.

The commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev, told ORT television late on Monday the militant counter-attacks might prompt a change in Russian tactics and said mistakes had been made.

"We had a serious discussion today and the necessary conclusions have been drawn," he said. "I think that in future no such mistakes will be made. In accordance with the situation, tactics will be changed as appropriate."

The Chechen militants, accused by Moscow of bomb attacks last year on Russian towns and cities and of trying to destabilise the North Caucasus region, have vowed to wage a partisan war against targets in Russian-held Chechnya. Militants leaders have denied responsibility for the bomb attacks.

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily sounded a grim note.

"For the first time this new war recalls the events of 1994-96," it said, referring to the first war which ended with the humiliating pullout of Russian troops from Chechnya.

It added Russia was likely to step up its aerial and artillery attacks in retaliation for the latest Chechen raids.

Acting President Vladimir Putin owes his popularity to the relative success so far of the Chechen operation he launched, but knows that mounting reversals could eat into his commanding lead in the presidential election campaign.

On Tuesday, Kazantsev denied any link between the military operation and Russia's election race.

"It is nonsense to believe that the election and the Chechnya operation are connected," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. Kazantsev also said he believed the military campaign would be completed before the March 26 election.

Russian planes conducted more than 70 sorties over Chechnya in the past 24 hours, hitting 20 rebel strongholds, four anti-aircraft guns, two personnel carriers and other targets despite poor weather, Interfax said.

Russian artillery pounded militant positions in Grozny and in the mountain settlements of Vedeno, Serzhen-Yurt and Duba-Yurt in southern Chechnya, traditional fighter strongholds.

Russian forces moved methodically through the Chechen lowlands at the start of this campaign in September, but encountered increasing difficulties as they advanced slowly on Grozny and tried to push the rebels into the southern mountains.

Interfax quoted Russian sources in Mozdok, Russia's biggest military base in the region, just outside Chechnya, as saying the large numbers of civilians trapped in Grozny were hampering their efforts to drive out the guerrillas.-Reuters