SLEPTSOVSKAYA, Russia -- Russian troops battled hundreds of militants Tuesday in the foothills of Chechnya's southern mountains, aiming to knock out key rebel supply routes, as Russian jets and ground forces kept up their raids on the capital of Grozny.
"I heard bombing without a break on Grozny," said Vakha Ovdanirov, a 60-year-old refugee who left a suburb of the capital this morning and traveled to the neighboring region of Ingushetia. "Planes and rockets are flying over constantly. The whole sky is black from smoke."An estimated 4,000 Chechen militants remain in the bomb-scarred city, according to Col. Gen. Igor Zubov, Russia's deputy interior minister. The rebels have built strong fortifications and have beaten back Russian troops that have tried to penetrate the capital during the past few days.
Federal troops were probing rebel positions in the city, drawing enemy fire to better locate the rebels' defenses, the Russian military headquarters said.
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said a date has been set for taking the city but did not give details, the news agency ITAR-Tass reported.
The Russian military claimed late Monday to have taken control of Grozny's main civilian airport, north of the city center. Federal troops had already captured an air base on Grozny's eastern outskirts, but fighting in the city is too intense for Russia to land planes at either site.
There are still an estimated 8,000 to 35,000 civilians inside Grozny, many of them too old or infirm to flee. Others fear the Russian shelling of the roads out of town, which has gone on despite the military's pledge that there would be a safe passage for refugees fleeing the city.
Russian troops control all of Chechnya's northern plains except Grozny. The rebels hold the capital and still have strongholds in the Caucasus Mountains, in the southern part of the republic.
At the base of the mountains, Russian forces fought an estimated 500 rebels near the town of Serzhen-Yurt, located along an important rebel supply route 18 miles southeast of Grozny, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Russia's military command.
The Russian military has been moving forces to the edge of the mountains, although troops are wary of entering the rugged terrain, where they would be vulnerable to rebel ambushes.
Even now, the militants were increasingly turning to nighttime attacks on Russian troops, the military said.
Federal jets bombed settlements across Chechnya's south. Despite heavy fog, Russian warplanes and helicopter gunships flew 43 sorties Tuesday, targeting the towns of Shatoi and Vedeno, the military said.
Throughout Russia's campaign in the breakaway republic, government forces have relied heavily on air raids and tried to avoid large-scale ground battles, which are almost certain to result in heavy losses among Russian troops.
Russian aircraft have been dropping fliers appealing to civilians not to provide food or other assistance to the militants, Russian military spokesman Col. Gennady Alyokhin said Tuesday.
The Russian military said Tuesday that during the past 24 hours one federal soldier was killed, while the militants lost 10 people, ITAR-Tass reported. However, official casualty estimates have been unreliable throughout the conflict.
The Russian military Tuesday denied reports that its forces shot and killed 40 civilians in the village of Alkhan-Yurt, southwest of Grozny.
In Geneva, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said today it will send foreign staff back into the northern Caucasus region this week after Russia provided new security guarantees.
Russia on Friday provided details of the security arrangement, which "provides for heavily armed escorts," spokesman Paul Stromberg said.
UNHCR staff trained in emergency services should arrive in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, on Wednesday or Thursday. Most Chechen refugees have fled to Ingushetia since Russian troops began their offensive in Chechnya in September
The refugee agency has no plans to send representatives into Chechnya, Stromberg said.