Outgunned, outnumbered rebels fought Russian soldiers street by street in the capital of the breakaway republic of Chechnya Monday. Burned-out tanks and bodies were strewn about the city's devastated downtown.
Hundreds of Chechen fighters were inside the presidential palace - a key objective of the 3-day-old Russian assault - along with several captured Russian soldiers.Russian warplanes and attack helicopters streaked across the skies and artillery pounded the outskirts of the capital, which was covered by a smoky haze.
The Russian government, which has several times claimed its troops were in control of Grozny, admitted Monday the Chechens were putting up stiff resistance throughout the sprawling city. Russia's defense minister called for more troops.
Chechen reinforcements also were pouring into Grozny from the surrounding countryside.
Moscow claimed Chechnya's president, Dzhokhar Dudayev, had fled the palace Sunday and taken refuge in a bunker on the outskirts of the besieged city. But Russia's Independent TV said Dudayev was not there.
Independent TV also reported fierce house-to-house fighting in some areas. Several Russian tanks were cut off from their support units, and the bodies of Russian soldiers lay in the streets.
Russian journalist, Vladimir Zhitarenko, a 54-year-old correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda military daily, died Sunday after being shot in the head, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.
He was the second journalist to be killed covering the Chechen war. American freelance photographer Cynthia Elbaum, 28, was killed during a rocket attack on Grozny on Dec. 22.
Black smoke rolled out of the burning Lenin oil refinery on the edge of the city, a day after the Russians began their all-out assault on the capital of the secessionist, mostly Muslim republic of 1.2 million. Much of the devastated city was blanketed in smoke and the snow was stained black up to 80 miles away.
Tank, rocket and small-arms battles raged around the presidential palace and the railway station several blocks away.
Defense Minister Pavel Grachev said Russian reinforcements entered Grozny on Sunday and vowed to "cleanse" the city of rebels by the end of the week.
Near the town of Urus-Martan, 12 miles to the southwest, villagers said they saw several hundred Russian paratroopers and at least a dozen attack helicopters.
Chechen fighters were headed in their direction.
Up to 40,000 Russian troops entered Chechnya on Dec. 11 to restore Russian authority and end what President Boris Yeltsin called an illegitimate, criminal regime. Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting, and hundreds of civilians and soldiers are believed to have been killed.
"We have to use force; there is no other way to rescue the population," Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev said Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press." "This is not an independence movement. It is just a criminal gang."
But the war is unpopular both at home and abroad.
"Constitutional order cannot be restored with artillery," Gen. Alexander Lebed, a top-ranking Russian officer and one of many military critics of the war, told Independent TV on Sunday.
In Washington, incoming Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said the military actions could jeopardize Russian democracy and U.S. aid to Russia.
"This is a no-win situation for Yeltsin," the Kansas Republican said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's an indication that democracy may be on the brink."