CHIRI-YURT, Russia -- Russian paratroopers and riot police clashed with scattered rebels in southern Chechnya on Saturday, but major fighting has quieted down while the militants regroup, a top Russian commander said.
"There is no open war today. The militants are scattered," Col. Gen. Gennady Troshev told reporters in the Chechen city of Gudermes.Russian troops who entered Chechnya in September took about two-thirds of the republic in the first months of the war. But they have stalled in trying to oust the rebels from the Vedeno region in the mountainous south.
The militants have scaled back operations in the past two days to redistribute their forces, the military command said Saturday. Chechen field commanders are working to organize small militant groups into bigger units, the military said, according to the Interfax news service.
Still, scattered clashes have continued and Russian warplanes have flown 20 combat missions since Friday while continuing artillery strikes.
Rebels with grenade launchers attacked a Russian checkpoint in the town of Shali, drawing Russian fire, Interior Ministry spokesman Mikhail Solomatin said Saturday.
Federal troops have regrouped in the Vedeno and Shatoi gorges and are conducting "special operations," said Troshev, the Russian commander.
Meanwhile, controversial pro-Moscow Chechen leader Bislan Gantamirov was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the Russian army in Gudermes.