URUS-MARTAN, Russia — Russian troops mounted a major sweep today against Chechen rebels around the southern town of Vedeno after a federal patrol was ambushed, the military command said.
Federal troops fanned out through the mountainous area in a search for 39 soldiers missing since the ambush Wednesday on a convoy of Russian Interior Ministry troops, the North Caucasus military command's press center told the Interfax news agency.
Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin spokesman for Chechnya, said today that 49 Interior Ministry troops were in the convoy. Four were killed in the attack, he said, according to Interfax. Six managed to escape, not 16 as reported earlier, he said.
"The remaining 39 were unaccounted for," he said.
Yastrzhembsky said the area around the village of Zhani-Vedenohas been "basically surrounded" and that a search and reconnaissance mission was under way. "Preparations are continuing for thorough mopping-up operations," he said.
Russian planes and artillery bombarded rebel concentrations near the villages of Gekhi-Chu, Zhani-Vedeno and Alleroi, the press center said today.
The ambush was the latest in a series of attacks demonstrating Russian forces' vulnerability to the rebels even though they are better-equipped and numerically superior.
Meanwhile, U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson arrived in Moscow today on a five-day trip that will include a visit to detention camps in rebel Chechnya where Russian troops have been accused of torturing civilians.
Robinson, who has also denounced alleged executions of civilians in the rebel region, is due to report back to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights holding its annual session in Geneva.
Russian ground forces entered Chechnya in late September and have driven most rebels out of the flatlands and into the mountains that make up the republic's southern third. The rebels are skilled guerrilla fighters who use the rough terrain to their advantage, while Russian forces struggle to move their heavy equipment in the mountains.
The seven-month war has subjected Russia to strong foreign criticism for alleged human-rights violations.
In an address to the Georgian parliament, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Chechnya and begin peace negotiations.
"Implementation of force by the Russian army in Chechnya and serious violations of human rights there arouse our serious anxiety," Schroeder said.
Russia has rejected such allegations, but in an apparent bow to international pressure, the Kremlin invited the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Chechnya.
The commissioner, Mary Robinson, was expected to arrive today for a four-day tour that will include a visit to detention facilities in Chechnya, where human rights groups say guards routinely torture detainees, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Putin agreed in principle on Thursday to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the detention facilities.
Russia also agreed to allow the ICRC to begin providing aid within Chechnya. The Red Cross has been providing aid to neighboring Ingushetia, to which hundreds of thousands of Chechen refugees have fled.
The UNHCR in Geneva said today that the exodus of refugees from southern Chechnya has come to a halt and refugees appear to be returning from Ingushetia in the biggest numbers in months.