Russian aircraft and artillery pounded villages in western Chechnya Saturday in a bid to crush rebel resistance, triggering a flood of refugees.
Lt. Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, Russia's top military commander in Chechnya, told Interfax news agency that federal forces had surrounded the mountain village of Bamut, about 30 miles southwest of the capital Grozny."The air force, artillery and armored vehicles are bombarding fortified rebel positions in Bamut and surrounding heights," Tikhomirov said.
He said rebels had been cut off from possible reinforcements, "especially from the village of Sam-ashki." Since Friday, thousands of people have fled Samashki, about 12 miles further north, as shells rained down on nearby areas.
However, the main target for Russian forces appeared to be Bamut, a former Soviet nuclear missile base transformed into a fortress for rebels loyal to separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Russia's NTV independent television reported from Bamut Friday that an unspecified number of Russian soldiers were being held prisoner in the village.
Tikhomirov said the rebels had already suffered significant losses, but there was no independent confirmation.
"There are significantly fewer rebels in Bamut than there were before the operation started," Tikhomirov said. But he acknowledged that the guerrillas could hold out for some time.
Interfax, quoting an official Russian source, said 20 separatist rebel fighters had been killed in the latest clashes in western Chechnya and several dozen had been taken prisoner.
A military spokesman told Interfax five Russian servicemen had been killed in Chechnya and seven had been wounded since Friday.
Both sides in the 15-month conflict have tended to give conflicting reports of casualties. Moscow sent troops into the region in December 1994 to crush a three-year independence bid. At least 25,000 people have been killed since then.
Interfax's unnamed Russian source said federal forces, supported by two artillery units, were carrying out "a step-by-step crushing of the militants' positions" in Bamut.
Itar-Tass news agency, in a report from the neighboring Ingushetia region, said almost 3,000 refugees had arrived from Samashki. A subsequent Tass dispatch said the number of registered refugees from the village was even greater.
Russian human rights official Andrei Mironov, speaking from the Ingush border town of Slept-sovsk, told the Ekho Moskvy commercial radio station that Russian forces were using tanks and multiple-launch Grad rockets against Samashki.
Mironov quoted refugees as saying many peaceful citizens remained in Samashki, which was the scene of a Russian assault last April described in media reports as a massacre of civilians. Moscow denied the charges.
Between 6,000 and 8,000 of Samashki's 16,000 residents managed to leave the village Friday through a corridor provided by Russian forces, Mironov said.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin said Friday his Security Council grouping top state and security officials had approved a settlement plan for Chechnya, but he gave no details.
Emil Pain, who heads a Kremlin-sponsored group charged with working out a settlement, told Interfax the Security Council plan had nothing to do with his proposals.
"After the corrections made yesterday, the plan lost any remote resemblance to the concept put forward by the Presidential Council working group," Pain said.