Grozny Bombs Kill at Least 80, Legislator Says

Russian forces pounded the capital of breakaway Chechnya on Friday, killing at least 80 people by one unofficial count as Moscow’s Parliament urged President Boris N. Yeltsin and his foes to halt the bloodshed.

Legislators in Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the Duma, appealed for an urgent cease-fire after jets bombed Grozny hourly through the night, damaging buildings and killing more civilians.

The Duma voted 228-38, with three abstentions, to back a call for a moratorium on military actions and to hold peace talks, but efforts to call a no-confidence motion against Yeltsin failed.

There was no immediate response from any side, and hopes of ending the fighting seemed unlikely.

Russia, which sent troops to Chechnya on Dec. 11 to halt the region’s 3-year-old drive for independence, has stiffened its military campaign in the last two days by intensifying air strikes on Grozny.

The bombardment killed at least 20 people Thursday, and witnesses said dozens more were believed to have died Friday. Many buildings were in ruins or on fire.

Valery Borshchev, a liberal legislator in Grozny, was quoted by the Russian news agency RIA as saying at least 80 people had been killed and 56 wounded Friday. He did not give a source for his information.

Government officials in Moscow said 44 Russian soldiers had died.

International reaction has been generally muted. But the U.S. State Department on Friday expressed concern for the fate of civilians.

Calling attention to a complaint by Sergei Kovalev, head of the Russian president’s Commission on Human Rights, State Department spokesman David Johnson said: “We will be following this up with the Russian government in order to evaluate the facts.”