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Chechen fighters step up partisan war against Moscow

MOSCOW: Chechen fighters stepped up a partisan war against Russian troops in the rebel region's southern mountains on Monday while Moscow used its superior fire power to try to oust them from hideouts.

Russian warplanes and helicopters hit rebel targets in the southern mountains, concentrating on the Vedeno region, where a spokesman for the federal forces told Interfax news agency that the rebels were trying to fortify or create new bases.

"These targets will be destroyed by using artillery and air strikes," one soldier was quoted as saying in Mozdok, a military base just outside Chechnya.

A correspondent for ORT state television said the troops had located dozens of rebels in a forest near Samashki, where they had dug a network of underground bases.

The rebels, who have inflicted increasing losses on Russian troops with night ambushes, said fighting continued across the southern mountains, littered with the burnt-out hulks of tanks from the 1994-96 Chechen war.

"While the boots of the Russian occupants are on the territory of the independent Chechen state, the aggressors will be destroyed with all our strength and means," the rebel Internet website, Kavkaz.org, quoted field commander Shamil Basayev as saying.

BASAYEV PRAISES HIGH CHECHEN MORALE

Russia sent troops into Chechnya in October on what Moscow has called an anti-terrorist operation to flush out rebels it accuses of invading neighbouring Dagestan and planting bombs in Russian apartment blocks. The rebels deny setting off the bombs.

Basayev, Russia's most wanted man, praised the high morale of the Chechen forces on a tour across the mountains and said they had enough strength to deal Russia "a shattering blow".

The West has urged Moscow to seek a political solution. But President-elect Vladimir Putin has ruled out talks with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, who faces criminal charges in Russia.

Basayev also said the Chechen side would not enter talks while Russian troops were in the region.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov left for Luxembourg for talks with the European Union.

"We'll be looking for more details about Chechnya," an EU official said on Sunday.

But for a fifth day, Russian officials sounded defiant about criticism over the campaign, saying Western organisations should watch their step when pushing Moscow to take different action.

"Russia's human rights commissioner notes that tragic events continue to happen in the Chechen republic accompanied by human rights violations against Russian citizens," rights commissioner Oleg Mironov said in a statement.

But he said the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly's vote to recommend Russian membership be suspended was misguided.

"Ultimatums complicate matters and do not help find the right decision," Mironov said. "They are not constructive and are unfriendly for relations with Russia."-Reuters