Russian forces captured a road linking two rebel-held villages Sunday, signalling an imminent ground assault on the south of breakaway Chechnya.
The Chechen military commander, meanwhile, ruled out peace negotiations after Russian officers failed to appear for scheduled talks on Saturday. "I think we've probably had enough of peace talks," said Gen. Aslan Maskhadov.Russian Interior Ministry troops dug in positions for five tanks and several armored personnel carriers on a six-mile stretch of road between the villages of Samashky and Achkhoy-Martan, west of the Chechen capital of Grozny.
The new outpost effectively cuts off Samashky from other rebel-held areas.
The Russian military command in Mozdok, outside Chechnya, said the road was captured after artillery and air strikes on rebel positions. It appeared to have been taken with no resistance.
In Samashky, surprised and dazed rebel fighters said they had been attacked by helicopters around midday. Heavy explosions sounded several times a minute.
The war began Dec. 11 when Russian troops invaded Chechnya to crush its 3-year-old independence drive. Human rights organizations estimate as many as 25,000 civilians have been killed.
Russian forces have resorted to artillery and rocket attacks to drive the rebels out of southern and eastern strongholds, a tactic used earlier to capture Grozny. But the capture of the road west of Grozny appeared to signal a long-expected ground assault on southern Chechnya.
On Sunday, Chechen Information Minister Movladi Udugov said 17 people died and 53 were wounded in air raids overnight on two mountain villages, Dyshni-Vedeno and Kharachoi.
He said nine other settlements were hit by Russian warplanes Sunday, but provided no casualty figures, the Interfax news agency reported.
At a hospital in Chery-Yurt, chief surgeon Khamid Ma-go-me-dov, his face gray from lack of sleep, said all but one of the 10 people brought into the hospital in the southeastern town Saturday were civilians.
"If the front line comes any closer, we'll have to move south once more," said Magomedov, as the bombardment threatened to shake loose more glass from the hospital windows.