GUDERMES, Russia -- Chechen rebels in Grozny fought ferociously Tuesday to prevent Russian forces from capturing a key square as federal commanders admitted their drive to take the center of the capital still faced strong resistance.
Both Russian and Chechen commanders reported intensified fighting around Minutka Square, where the Russian advance on the city center has been stalled for days. The square is near a key Russian-held bridge across the Sunzha River that bisects Grozny.Aslanbek Ismailov, the rebel commander in Grozny, said that in some districts of the Chechen capital his fighters had switched from trying to hold on to fixed positions to hit-and-run attacks, striking Russian troops from the rear.
The Russians claim to control most of Grozny, although troops are often taking city blocks by day only to abandon them at night in fear of rebel ambushes. Despite claims of steady progress, the Russians still appear far from occupying the city or defeating the rebel garrison after months of fighting.
Russian officials conceded today that the federal forces were having trouble overcoming the agile rebels, who are operating in bands of no more than 15 fighters and are moving about the city frequently, the Interfax news agency reported.
However, Alexander Sapronov, a military spokesman, said that the Russian forces had advanced about 550 yards toward Minutka Square on Monday.
And the federal forces claimed to have prevented some 150 militants from breaking through from the northeast Lenin neighborhood of Grozny toward Minutka Square on Monday night. Up to 30 of the rebels were killed, the military claimed.
A top Russian officer, Col. Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, said the strategy for taking Grozny "is developing according to plan, even if it is not without some difficulties."
The Russian military estimates that some 2,500 rebels remain in Grozny, while more than 6,000 are believed to be operating out of the rugged southern mountains.
The Russian air force sharply increased its airstrikes against rebels, flying more than 250 combat missions on Monday. More than 30 fortified rebel emplacements, two mobile communication centers, one training camp, four air defense installations and seven mortar crews were destroyed, and 100 rebels were killed, the military claimed today.
Russian claims of rebel losses often appear to be on the high side. The lightly armed rebels have few heavy weapons or bases, despite Russian claims to have destroyed hundreds of such targets.
Six Russian soldiers were killed and 14 wounded over the past 24 hours, Sapronov said.
An Mi-8 helicopter carrying a group of Russian officers crashed in the southern Vedeno district today, but none of the officers were injured beyond bruises, Interfax said. The military said that a technical malfunction had caused the crash.
Russian aircraft continued to concentrate their fire on the rebel-held Argun and Vedeno gorges. The Russians have been bombing the area for two weeks, trying to dislodge the militants from their refuges on the forested inner slopes of the gorges.
The gorges are key corridors through the mountains that shelter rebels and from which they can mount guerrilla attacks on the Russians. The Russians believe that rebel supplies are also coming through the gorges, some of them from Georgia, the only foreign country that borders on Chechnya.
Rebels said that the bombing had caused landslides on roads leading to Georgia, Interfax reported.
Russian helicopters scrambled early today to pursue an unmarked, white helicopter that was spotted flying into Chechnya from the direction of Georgia, said Russian officers. The military claims that a helicopter has been ferrying rebels' supplies into Chechnya and carrying out wounded fighters on the return trip.
On Monday night, dozens of Chechen rebels opened fire on a Russian outpost on the Georgian border, ITAR-Tass reported. The military said such overnight attacks on troops in the southern mountains were incessant.
Russian troops entered breakaway Chechnya in September after Chechen-based militants stormed villages in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan. The rebels were also blamed for a series of deadly bombings of apartment houses in Moscow and two other cities in September.
An estimated 240,000 people have fled Chechnya since the fighting began, most of them crowding into camps in the neighboring Russian region of Ingushetia. On Monday, authorities announced that refugees would no longer be fed if they were from areas now held by Russian troops and considered to be safe.
More than 2,000 refugees a day flee to neighboring Ingushetia, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said today. About half as many people return to Chechnya to parts where there is no fighting.